Russian Customs to Settle with Bank of New York

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that the Russian Federal Customs Service will settle its $22.5 billion money laundering claim against the Bank of New York (BNY), brought in a Russian court under the U.S. civil RICO statute. According to Kudrin, the settlement amount will be not less than BNY's $14 million payment in 2005 to settle related claims by the U.S. government. Kudrin called the Customs Service's evidence "very insufficient."

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1238495
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/business/global/17bony.html

For background on the 2005 settlement, see http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/bf/bll/20051128/20051128newyork.html.