Employees of Latvia's Trasta Komercbanka held on money laundering suspicions

Two employees of Latvia's Trasta Komercbanka bank were detained on suspicions of money laundering last Thursday, the bank said on Monday.

Police also searched the employees' offices during the raid on the bank.

Citing information provided by the employees, Trasta Komercbanka said they were being suspected of involvement in laundering 1 million Russian rubles' worth (14,031 U.S. dollars) of illegal proceeds through the bank.

The suspects were not remained in custody.

An internal inquiry is under way at Trasta Komercbanka to establish all the circumstances of the case. The bank suspended the two employees pending the inquiry.

Trasta Komercbanka has pledged to thoroughly examine all the documents that might be directly or indirectly related to the deal in question and to probe the employees' role.

The alleged money laundering case, however, has not affected the bank's operations and services.

It was reported last week that police had detained two employees of a bank, which was not identified at that time, for helping a client from Russia legalize proceeds from crime by using a scheme of fictitious transactions. Endit