The criminal investigation into defrauding Kazakh’s BTA bank of $730m, led by the interior ministry’s investigative department, have reached its final phase.

It emerged that the fraud involved general director of Eurasia Logistic Closed JSC and his three subordinates, according to the investigators.

Another person that the Russian Mafia (rumafia.com) believes to have been involved is Aleksandr Udovenko, the director general of East Bridge Capital LLC wanted by the Interpol. Udovenko is renown for setting up offshore companies in the Seychelles. The accused four prepared and submitted credit request, asking over $730m from Turanalem bank (former name of BTA bank), in the name of 6 companies, controlled by Udovenko. With submitting deliberately false information the companies received money for «buying land plots in the Moscow region» from Mukhtar Ablyazov's BTA bank. The bank moved money to the accounts of these shadow companies, controlled by the alleged members of the criminal group. «The accused utilized loan to fund their personal needs. With a portion of the loan they indeed bought a land plot and put it in plege to secure the credit and conceal their wrongdoing, the assessed cost of this land much highher than its real market prise», say the investigation files.

The alleged criminals forged signatures of the bank’s officials in order to sign сounterfeit mortage agreement and redeem the land. After that «the forged documents were registrated by the office of the Federal Registration Service of the Moscow region and the land was sold, which allowed the criminals make it look like legitemate ownership», according to Kommersant.