The Bank of Moscow, which was recently partly acquired by state-run VTB bank, has asked the Interior Ministry to investigate if the sale of part of its 43.79 percent stake in Estonia's lender Eesti Krediidipank was legal, it said late on Tuesday.
Bank of Moscow sold 10.748 million shares for 6.99 million euros, having cut its stake in Estonia's lender to 16.22%.
"The Bank of Moscow employees responsible for preparing such deals were not informed about the sale of a part of Bank of Moscow's stake in Eesti Kredidipank," the bank said in a statement.
Bank of Moscow says that it received a copy of a sale contract under which it sold 4.576 million shares of Eesti Kredidipank to Firmex Inversteeringud of behalf of the bank's former head Andrei Borodin on April 21, the day when a shareholders' meeting replaced him with a former VTB employee.
Borodin told RIA Novosti news agency that VTB knew about the sale and he and VTB head Andrei Kostin discussed it at the beginning of March.
"Kostin said VTB did not need 43 percent in Eesti Krediidipank and asked us to find a buyer. We did it...All talk about someone not knowing about the deal is groundless," Borodin said adding that the stake had been sold above market value. "I consider the ... announcement as another effort to tarnish my reputation and have a dig at former management. This is new step in the raider seizure of Bank of Moscow," he added.
Borodin, an ally of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who was fired last autumn by President Dmitry Medvedev over a lack of trust, is now in London.
Russian prosecutors have requested a warrant for Borodin's arrest in absentia and put him on Interpol's wanted list.
A Bank of Moscow source told RIA Novosti the bank was investigating if the 6.2 million shares had been sold in good faith.
MOSCOW, May 11 (RIA Novosti)
