Initially, Lawson appears to have hoped to use a Potemkin "offshore" trustee the Russian- owned Moscow Narodny Bank in London.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | How Not to Lend To A Bankrupt Russia: Eximbank Energy Deal Should Be Iced, Reworked

Will either the International Moscow Bank or Moscow Narodny Bank neither of which can be legitimately viewed as independent, secure entities for this purpose play a role in these transactions?

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | The Brody Confirmation: Will Eximbank Be Allowed To Go The Way Of A Scandal-Ridden CCC?

For example, when the Bank of England began to tighten slightly its oversight of Moscow Narodny Bank in London after 1986, the USSR simply moved at least a portion of its more risque banking activities to Eurobank in Paris and East-West United Bank in Luxembourg where regulatory officials were more laissez-faire.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | ��MORAL HAZARD��: MOSCOW��S DUBIOUS BANKING OPERATIONS MAY MAKE THE BCCI AND BNL AFFAIRS LOOK LIKE SMALL CHANGE