Astrakhan: bankers steal 2.5M from children's home pupils

In Astrakhan, employees of a bank branch were stealing money for several months in a row from accounts of orphans and minors left without parental care.

As reported by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, one of Astrakhan banks was receiving alimonies, social payments and other entries to the accounts of children home pupils, who could make use of their funds only upon reaching majority, after graduation from the children's home.

One of social workers occasionally found out that some of children's accounts experience a "non-authorized flow of funds." The children's home bosses addressed the militia and bank top managers after that.

As a result of a check it became clear that during a couple of months about 2.5 million roubles were written off from children's accounts. Employees of the Investigatory Department at the UVD (Interior Department) detected about 30 falsified pupils' signatures in account warrants, the ITAR-TASS reports.

According to the press service of the UVD of the Astrakhan Region, the crime was committed as a result of a conspiracy of bank employees and their friend - a former pupil of the children's home. The latter was finding out personal biographical details of the pupils and delivering them to his accomplices, who robbed the kids.

The bank managers have already dismissed almost all the staff of the branch, where money had disappeared. Two basic figurants in the case are arrested, the third one is under recognizance not to leave, as he has plead guilty, cooperates with the investigation and has compensated a part of the damage by depositing 400,000 roubles to the cash department of the bank.

The name of the bank is not disclosed in the interests of the inquiry.