MOSCOW, December 12 - RAPSI. A criminal case against pseudo-bankers who made an illegal turnover of around 18 billion rubles ($585.3 million) has been filed with a Moscow court, the Interior Ministry reported on its website on Wednesday.

"A group of former bank employees operated an underground bank which rendered a full spectrum of operations to clients for over four years and resulted in the illegal turnover of around 18 billion rubles," the report reads.

The ministry reported that two 36-year-old Muscovites opened the illegal bank in March 2007.

They established and acquired the assets of over 100 shady companies, whose details were in fact used as correspondent accounts of the sham bank in legal credit organizations. The men rented several offices in different Moscow districts and even hired employees who believed that they were working at the company, rendering auditor and bookkeeping services.

"But their main area of activity was conducting financial operations with legal entities and individuals. All clients were granted a full package of sham financial documents which allegedly served as a basis for making settlements in deals," the report reads.

The pseudo-bankers' commission fees amounted to a minimum of 0.5 percent of the transaction. Occasionally the fees came up to 8 percent. The defendants' income from all these transactions totaled around 58.5 million rubles ($1.9 million).