ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, June 17 (UPI) -- Russia's Federal Security Service has raided St. Petersburg banks and the city's stock exchange.
The raids were part of a money-laundering investigation, the Moscow Times reported Friday.
Valery Kuznetsov, a Northwestern regional spokesman for the FSB, said investigators were targeting a fraud ring that had been involved in illegally claiming value-added-tax rebates and then transferring the money abroad.
In comments on NTV national network television, Kuznetsov said that several city bank accounts had been seized, along with millions of dollars' worth of rubles and other currencies. He said the FSB targets had included the St. Petersburg Futures Exchange bourse and several banks, including the Northwestern Investment and Industrial Bank and the East Bridge Bank.
The FSB said it had detained more than 20 people for questioning in the raids, and seized armored cars that had been part of money trafficking operations, Interfax reported.
