In Moscow, Money Launderers Wring Their Hands

A plea bargain by two key suspects in the Bank of New York money laundering scandal exposed last year could prove devastating to some Moscow movers and shakers. Reuters reported Wednesday that former Bank of New York official Lucy Edwards and her husband, Peter Berlin, owner of the company through whose accounts the illegally transferred billions were moved, pleaded guilty in New York to money laundering charges. "Presumably, the government is going to try and get them to cooperate and tell investigators how this money laundering scheme worked, what its mechanisms were," says TIME senior business writer Bernard Baumohl. "And obviously they'll be looking to discover whether there was a much larger web of people involved — either Russian officials surreptitiously moving out money, or other international banking figures."

However the case unravels, says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier, the latest news from New York has set the Russian financial circles on edge — and bracing for the next major revelation. "There's a great political will among Western law enforcement agencies to nab people higher up," says Meier. "Particularly someone higher up on the Russian side." Moscow agencies may or may not join in the hunt, adds Meier. "It remains to be seen whether Russians share the West's urge to investigate this case."

A guilty plea by Ms. Edwards also raises potential problems for her former employers at the Bank of New York, although these may not necessarily be of a legal nature. "When a senior bank official admits to such activity, the bank faces the danger of being stigmatized as an institution that has failed to properly scrutinize its employees," says Baumohl. "Still, it's likely to be more of an embarrassment than a legal problem."