3 People, 3 Companies Charged with Funneling $7 Billion From Russia.

In what investigators believe to be one of the largest cases of money laundering in the United States, three people and three companies have been charged with illegally funneling $7 billion from Russia through the Bank of New York. The first charges in the case were made in a Sept. 16 indictment - unsealed today - against Peter Berlin, Lucy Edwards - a former vice president at the bank -and Aleksey Volkov, as well as Benex International Co.Inc., Becs International L.L.C. and Torfinex Corp.U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said in a statement that "the ongoing investigation is very intense and broad, and it is likely to go on for some time." The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired from 1996 to August 1999 to illegally transmit funds and receive deposits through the Benex and Becs accounts at the Bank of New York. Berlin was the president of both Benex and Becs and was married to Edwards, who was a vice president in the Eastern European Division at the Bank of New York and was also an officer of Benex and Becs, prosecutors said.The defendants were charged because they allegedly engaged in an illegal banking operation by receiving deposits without obtaining authorization from any federal or state banking agency, according to prosecutors. Although published reports have quoted investigators as stating they believe money was being laundered for Russian organized crime figures, no specific link was spelled out in the indictment. The Bank of New York was not named in the indictment and had no comment. Barry Kingham, a lawyer for Berlin and Edwards, said the couple - who live in London - will "appear in whatever court they_re required to appear in. " Otherwise, he said, "We cannot comment on the indictment except to state that we will respond at the appropriate time in the appropriate forum." It could not be determined who represents Volkov; prosecutors believe he is not in the United States.