Ex-EBRD Banker Pleads Not Guilty to Taking U.S. Firm’s Bribes

Former European Bank for Reconstruction and Development banker Andrey Ryjenko pleaded not guilty to accepting bribes and laundering more than $3 million.

His co-defendant, former Standard Bank Plc employee Tatjana Sanderson, also pleaded not guilty to the same charges at a hearing today in London. The two are accused of taking bribes to show favor to a company called Chestnut Consulting Inc. between September 2007 and March 2010, according to the indictment.

The two were also charged with transferring the funds from Chestnut Consulting’s managing director Dmitrij Harder to Sanderson’s bank accounts. Chestnut Consulting is based in Southampton, Pennsylvania, and arranges financing for the energy, metals and mining, infrastructure, and industrial production firms, according to its website.

Sanderson, whose last name was formerly Ryjenko, previously worked at Standard Bank, according to the U.K. Financial Services Authority’s register of approved people. The case is scheduled for trial in November.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lindsay Fortado in London at lfortado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net