ST. PETERSBURG, July 6 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Head of the fund for support of St. Petersburg’s small businesses Rifat Islyayev has been arrested on suspicion of deliberately placing 200 million rubles (about $3.3 million) in a bank on a brink of closure, a source in the St. Petersburg Directorate of the Investigative Committee told RAPSI on Thursday.

Allegedly, heads of Fund for Assisting Venture Investments in Small Enterprises in the Scientific-Technical Sphere in St. Petersburg NGO told law enforcement that the organization’s head Islyayev transferred money between banks without consulting anyone else in March.

He allegedly cashed in 200 million rubles from Bank St. Petersburg and placed them in Taftobank with the latter losing its license also in March. The Fund was unable to return money frozen on the account and its activities came to a halt as a result. The applicants believe that Islyayev was acting deliberately.