Woman admits laundering millions for corrupt banker brother

THE SISTER of a corrupt banker has admitted her part in laundering $3.5 million (£2.7 million) in bribes.

Mother-of-three Tatjana Sanderson, 39, let Channel Island accounts in her name be used to bank the money for Anglo-Russian sibling Andrey Ryjenko.

At the time, Ryjenko, 45, was employed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in a role which required him to consider equity investment and loan applications from firms.

He accepted more than $3.5 million in return for approving loans for Dmitrij Harder, then principal owner of Chestnut Consulting Group, based in Southampton, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

At the Old Bailey, Sanderson pleaded guilty to concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between September 2007 and March 2010. The court heard the money remained in the bank accounts “outside the jurisdiction” but had not been touched by Sanderson, who lives in her parents’ multimillion pound flat near Hyde Park.

Prosecutor Tom Little QC said a further bribery charge would not be proceeded with by the Crown.

Sanderson, of Sussex Gardens, west London, was granted conditional bail to be sentenced by Judge Nicholas Cooke QC at the Old Bailey on September 25.

Her guilty plea followed a longrunning bribery case which led to convictions in Britain and the United States.

Last June, Ryjenko, 45, was jailed for six years after he was convicted of conspiring to make or accept corrupt payments and transferring criminal property following a five-week trial at the Old Bailey.