George Urumov, ex-manager of Otkritie, British-based subsidiary of one of Russia's largest financial groups was found guilty of fraud with bonuses and securities, daily Kommersant reported. The illegal activities of Urumov inflicted damage worth $175 million. It is the first time the Russian financial company gained suit at law against its staffer. Such disputes used to be settled without bringing a case before a court.
Otkritie Securities Limited managed to recover $50 million out of the incurred losses. The other $50 million was frozen on the accounts owned by Urumov and people related to him.
Two complaints were filed against George Urumov. For one thing, the Russian trader allegedly defrauded the company by failing to split an agreed $25 million "sign-on fee" evenly between himself and four bond traders when they were recruited by the firm in 2010. Urumov was accused of keeping $20 million for himself.
Moreover, the trader with his crime partners paid $213 million for Argentinian warrants which are actually worth $63 million, daily Vedomosti said. Urumov mispriced Argentinian government securities feeding deliberately the wrong exchange rate of Argentinian peso in an ATM machine. As soon as the lack of funds was spotted, the trader was fired and brought to justice. All his accounts were being blocked during the investigation. As a result of his swindling, the investment company suffered the net losses at $74.4 billion at the end of 2011. Earlier, Urumov tried to sue Otkritie in the court for corporate disputes claiming to collect $75 million from the company for his unfair dismissal. The outcome of this lawsuit has been still unknown.
