MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - Police have put an end to activities of an organized criminal group whose members are suspected of manufacturing and selling a commercial bank's false promissory notes worth over 7 billion rubles, the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
"Active members of the group were identified in a search operation, and then an officer from the Interior Ministry's economic security and anti-corruption directorate contacted them and agreed to buy 1-billion-ruble worth of the notes for 12% of their par value," it said.
The policeman had a number of controlled meetings at which he reached an agreement with the fraudsters to having the price cut by 15 million rubles and was provided with bank details for transferring 100 million rubles.
"After the agreement was reached, a test purchase of the false promissory notes was made," it said.
Upon receiving 5 million rubles in cash, four members of the group were detained, it said.