Bank of New York Co. has fired a second employee as an international law enforcement probe into suspected money laundering continues.
The employee, Svetlana Kudryautsev, was a New York-based associate in the Eastern European division. A source said Ms. Kudryautsev was dismissed for "failure to cooperate with the bank in its ongoing investigation of certain accounts."
A spokesman for $68 billion-asset Bank of New York confirmed the firing but declined further comment.
Last week the bank fired Lucy Edwards, a vice president and officer in the London office, for alleged gross misconduct and violation of internal procedures, sources say. Ms. Edwards also worked in the Eastern European group. Her attorney, T. Barry Kingham, issued a statement Thursday on behalf of her and her husband, Russian businessman Peter Berlin, denying any wrongdoing.
Ms. Edwards' supervisor, Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky, a senior vice president, remains on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
None of the three women has been accused of a crime. In a statement last week, Ms. Kagalovsky similarly denied wrongdoing.
Bank of New York said last month that it has been cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is investigating whether as much as $10 billion was laundered through several accounts that potentially have links to Russian organized-crime figures.
A source familiar with the investigation said the suspicious account activity may have been going on for eight years, about the time Bank of New York began courting business in post-Soviet Russia. The half-dozen accounts under investigation, some of which are eight years old, have all been linked to Mr. Berlin, the source said.
As much as $4 billion flowed from Russia through the Bank of New York accounts before the end of September 1998, when federal authorities began to monitor them, the source said. The wire transfers were sporadic at first, picked up dramatically last fall, and the greatest volume occurred in March, the source said.
The accounts, and the $20 million in them, have been frozen, the source said.
