UFA, March 15 - RAPSI. Federal Security Service officers have detained two individuals in an attempt to defraud a businessman of $4.5 million. A criminal case has been opened on fraud charge against the suspects.

A U.S. citizen Gennady Elchev, 60, and Chechnya resident Ramzan Vagipov, 39, are reported to set up a scheme aimed at misappropriating a businessman's money. They were seized in a Ufa bank's vault.

During the search police officers confiscated $4.5 million received from the defrauded businessman as well as receipts bearing the seal of the Caucasus Stabilization Fund on a parliamentarian's letterhead and a US-based company letterhead. Vagapov had certificate of a senator's aide and U.S. citizen Elchev produced credentials of an advisor to the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic.