It is the second letter accusing Russia's main bank published by Alexei Frenkel, 35, since his arrest January 11 on suspicion of organizing the murder of Central Bank Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov, 41, in mid-September of last year.
Members of the banking community have differed in their assessments of the letter, which all but names officials involved in corruption, among them Kozlov. Some have said it appeared plausible, whereas others remained skeptical. But all agree the letter lacks documentary evidence, the business daily Kommersant said.
Frenkel, the former board chairman of the small privately owned VIP-bank, whose license had been canceled three months before Kozlov's murder, said the Central Bank had differentiated between banks automatically eligible for the insurance system and others which had to pay huge kickbacks to be enrolled, respected daily Izvestia wrote.
"Leading state-controlled banks, foreign lending organizations' subsidiaries and the banks that 'helped' [CB] officials, active on the cash and 'non-standard' banking services market, were all in the former group," Frenkel wrote, as quoted by Izvestia, referring to illegal capital flight and tax evasion schemes allegedly carried out by Central Bank executives.
Other banks, Frenkel claimed, were given access to the insurance system only in exchange for kickbacks, which varied from $150,000 to $5 million according to the size of the bank, Izvestia wrote.
Kommersant quoted Frenkel as saying that the Central Bank's practices had led to the emergence of "an entire system of kickbacks which have reached an unprecedented scale in the last two or three years."
Moscow Interbank Currency Association President Alexei Mamontov, who handed the letter over to Kommersant, said Frenkel wrote both letters last summer, but delayed their publication for lack of substantiating documentary evidence. His arrest, however, prompted their publication.
Referring to an unidentified source, Kommersant said Frenkel had planned to publish the compromising material long before Kozlov's murder.
Business people familiar with banking practices said what was described in the letter was "very true to life," the newspaper said.
Some experts, however, called Frenkel's revelations "pure schizophrenia," saying an anti-corruption drive looked odd for a banker with a semi-criminal business, Kommersant said, adding that others also questioned the authorship of both letters and suggested security services were behind the material.
Frenkel does not name officials allegedly involved in the illegal transactions and kickbacks, but cites details on the illegal schemes that would allow them to be tracked down. Mamontov crossed out the names of the banks in the letter, but they could easily be identified by the dates mentioned in it, Kommersant said.
The Central Bank has declined to comment on Frenkel's accusations.
"Law enforcement bodies have more than once, including last year, examined the Central Bank's activities and looked into similar accusations, but no evidence substantiating corruption charges have been uncovered," a senior Central Bank official told Kommersant on condition of anonymity.
The jailed banker's previous letter, in which he complained about the Central Bank's arbitrariness in withdrawing banks' operating licenses, was published January 19.
The charges against Frenkel were brought following the arrest of a suspected middle figure in the high-profile murder, who pointed to the banker as the paymaster in the case.
Seven people have so far been detained in connection with the murder of Kozlov, widely described in the media as an honest official who led a crusade against money laundering and other criminal banking practices. Some of them have reportedly confessed to having been hired to kill the banking official.
