MOSCOW, July 18 - RAPSI. Head of the Interior Ministry's Auditing Department for St. Petersburg Alexei Seredinin will be discharged if he is found guilty of bribery, the ministry reported on Wednesday.

"Seredinin is now subject to agency check, the results of which will decide whether he loses his job or not," says the report.

On Tuesday it was revealed that Seredinin is suspected of accepting a 40 million ruble plus ($1.2 million) a bribe from a company which wanted to avoid prosecution from its creditors.

The Investigative Committee reported on Tuesday that between February and July 2011 Seredinin received over 40 million rubles ($1.2 million) via Alexei Smirnov who acted as an intermediary.

Smirnov is now under criminal investigation for mediation in bribery which is punishable by up to 12 years in prison.

Seredinin has been charged with large-scale bribery committed by an official, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years behind bars.