ST. PETERSBURG, July 12 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – A criminal case against the head of the fund for support of St. Petersburg’s small businesses Rifat Islyayev charged with deliberately placing 200 million rubles (about $3.3 million) in a bank on a brink of closure has reached court, the press service of the city’s Kuibyshevsky District Court has told RAPSI.

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

He allegedly cashed in 200 million rubles from Bank St. Petersburg and placed the money 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.