Criminal Corporate Raiding in Russia

According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs ("MVD"), raiding generates approximately 120 billion rubles (over $40 million) a year in illegal profits, and, considering that this statistic is based only on the rare cases actually investigated by the MVD, the true amount is certainly far higher.2 Ivan Novitskii, a deputy of Moscow City Duma (a municipal legislative body in Moscow), claims that 300 Moscow businesses are raided every year and that thousands more are at risk.3 In a recent study by Price Waterhouse, businesses operating in Russia identified "asset misappropriation" as their top criminal problem.4 Businesses of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest, have been victimized.