Thursday, July 01, 2010

Roubles rain down in Moscow car chase

Two Moscow officials face bribery charges following a car chase in which one of them allegedly threw bundles of roubles out of the window, Russian authorities say. Russian TV news shows scores of rouble notes being collected and dropped into a cardboard box on a Moscow highway.

One of the suspects, Boris Simonov, tried to throw away 10m roubles (£214,000; $322,000), the report alleged. He crashed his Cadillac in the chase. The TV programme showed two suspects handcuffed and lying on the road beside the smashed-up Cadillac, which was reported to be worth seven million roubles.



The crash happened as they were being chased by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents on a busy Moscow highway. Mr Simonov and his boss, Roman Postnikov, are accused of having taken bribes from businessmen involved in selling fishing permits at reservoirs on the outskirts of Moscow.

The arrested officials worked for the Federal Fisheries Agency and it is alleged that the businessmen used bribes to obtain an illegally back-dated contract. Mr Postnikov was arrested after meeting the businessmen elsewhere in Moscow.

No comments: