-Caveat Lector- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Yeltsin Linked To Bribe Scheme Yeltsin Linked To Bribe Scheme Swiss Probe Finds Firm Made Payoffs To President, Other Russian Officials By Sharon LaFraniere Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, September 8, 1999; Page A01 GENEVA, Sept. 7—A Swiss investigation has uncovered construction company that received major Kremlin contracts paid tens of thousands of dollars in bills on credit cards in the names of President Boris Yeltin and his two daughters, according to law enforcement authorities. The contractor, a Swiss firm called Mabetex, also provided $1 million that was transferred to a Hungarian bank account several years ago for Yeltsin's benefit, the authorities said. In all, Mabetex made between $10 million and $15 million in payoffs to high-ranking Russian officials, including Yeltsin, and their families, according to one official familiar with the inquiry. The investigation has been in and out of the news for more than a year, but the size of the alleged payoffs to Yeltsin and his family was not previously disclosed. A spate of allegations in recent weeks of high-level Russian financial corruption has caused political storms in Russia and the United States. In a separate money-laundering inquiry, revealed last month, U.S. prosecutors are investigating billions of dollars that flowed from Russia through accounts at Bank of New York. Mabetex's top official, Behgjet Pacolli, has denied paying any bribes. Yeltsin's press spokesman also said neither the president nor his family engaged in any wrongdoing. The investigation into Mabetex has been overseen in Bern by Swiss prosecutor Carla del Ponte, who is resigning next week to become the new U.N. war crimes prosecutor in The Hague. The Swiss have been aggressively pursuing a money-laundering case against Pavel Borodin, the Russian official who managed Mabetex's Kremlin contracts and has denied any wrongdoing. Investigators have determined that Mabetex set up bank accounts for Borodin's benefit in the Swiss cities of Lugano and Geneva. But the Swiss money-laundering inquiry can bear fruit only if Russian officials prosecute Borodin for corruption. The Swiss are relying on the Russians to show that the money that went to Borodin's accounts came from improper sources. "The Russians have the main investigation," Del Ponte said in an interview today. "We hope they can go on and complete it." However, there is a widespread perception in Moscow that Yeltsin's government is impeding the Russian side of the investigation. Earlier this year, Yeltsin suspended chief Russian prosecutor Yuri Skuratov, who was investigating the case. The suspension came just a few days after Del Ponte described the links between Mabetex and Yeltsin in a telephone conversation with Skuratov, according to knowledgeable sources. The Mabetex probe has also been slowed by the recent transfer of the principal Russian investigator on the case. Swiss investigators uncovered the credit cards issued to Yeltsin and his two daughters while looking for payments from Mabetex to Borodin, officials said. Mabetex's records showed the company made regular credit card payments over two to three years to a Swiss bank. Investigators later determined the cards had been for Yeltsin and his daughters, the officials said. It is not clear what the credit cards were used to purchase. In Moscow, suspended prosecutor Skuratov said that he'd been told by Swiss authorities that Mabetex spent a total of 15 million Swiss francs (about $10 million) on bribes to high-ranking officials, including Yeltsin, and their families. In an interview with the newspaper Versia, Skuratov called for a full investigation and raised anew the question of credit cards allegedly given to Yeltsin and his daughters by Mabetex president Pacolli. In a separate television interview tonight, Skuratov said he was told in March by the Swiss investigators that Pacolli's bank accounts were used to "fill the credit cards of Yelena Okulova, Tatyana Dyachenko and Boris Nikolayevich [Yeltsin] himself." Okulova and Dyachenko are Yeltsin's daughters; Dyachenko is a Kremlin aide. He said the Swiss prosecutor, del Ponte, "gave this figure, which in their opinion was the money spent by Mr. Pacolli to bribe the Russian officials." In Washington, three senior U.S. officials briefed a handful of reporters today on how and when they learned of the separate Bank of New York probe, saying that they knew few details until the case became public last month. The State Department first heard about the movement of huge amounts of money from Russia to the Bank of New York in March, officials said. Authorities in another country brought the case to their attention and suggested that Russian organized crime might be involved. At the time, there was no suggestion that any U.S. or Russian government officials or U.S. or IMF money was involved, officials said. The State Department then contacted the National Security Council and, with officials from the NSC, took the information to the Justice Department, officials said. Justice officials declined to discuss the matter, which was already under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Treasury Department, meanwhile, learned about the FBI investigation in April from officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Because the FBI was investigating, officials said, the Treasury Department took no action. Attorney General Janet Reno and other senior adminstration officials -- including Vice President Gore -- were not briefed in detail about the case until late last month, the officials said. Correspondent David Hoffman in Moscow and staff writer Robert O'Harrow Jr. in New York contributed to this report. © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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