New York bank linked to  IMF's missing millions

   BY JAMES BONE AND DAVID LISTER
 
AUTHORITIES in the United States are
 investigating whether the Bank of New York, at
 the centre of a money-laundering inquiry, was
 used as a conduit for $200 million (£125
 million) which is thought to have been
 siphoned from International Monetary Fund
 loans to Russia.

 The money appears to have passed through
 three commercial banks in the US and Europe
 before ending up in an offshore account in the
 Channel Islands controlled by a Russian
 commercial bank, The Wall Street Journal
 reported yesterday. It also emerged that the
 company secretary of a British firm linked to
 the money-laundering investigation had left the
 firm. Naeem Ullah Goraya said he had resigned
 from Benex Worldwide, a company controlled
 by Peter Berlin. Mr Berlin is the husband of
 Lucy Edwards, a London-based Bank of New
 York executive who was suspended last week.

 Mr Goraya said that he posted his resignation
 letter to Companies House last Friday. "I am
 finished with this. If this company is involved
 in this sort of activity then I don't want to be
 an accountant for them," he said. There is no
 suggestion that Benex Worldwide has been
 involved in any illegal activity.

 Mr Berlin is also listed as an officer of a New
 Jersey-based company called Benex
 International, a company thought to have had
 links with a Russian mafia boss. According to
 a report last week, one bank account at the
 Bank of New York is held in the name of
 Benex.

 Neither Mr Berlin nor Ms Edwards could be
 contacted for comment yesterday. However,
 lawyers for Ms Edwards said they were
 considering whether to issue a formal
 statement.

 Suggestions that the Bank of New York may
 have been used to transfer money received
 from the IMF comes as an additional blow for
 one of Wall Street's oldest and most respected
 financial institutions. It will fuel growing
 controversy over misuse of the $20 billion that
 the IMF has lent to Russia since 1992. Only
 last month, the IMF approved a new loan of
 $4.5 billion to Russia.

 The husband of one of the two Bank of New
 York officers suspended in the current
 investigation, Konstantin Kagalovsky, was
 Russia's representative to the IMF from 1992
 to 1995. He has not been accused of any
 wrongdoing.