In 2007, Volga-Dnepr and its Irish subsidiary were debarred from U.N. contracting after it surfaced during the trial of Vladimir Kuznetsov, formerly the highest-ranking Russian diplomat at the United Nations, that bribes were paid to Alexander Yakovlev, a U.N. procurement official, and laundered by Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov was found guilty and Yakovlev pled guilty, and testified against Kuznetsov, for crimes of fraud and money-laundering related to the bribes. Both were imprisoned as a result. Mr. Yakovlev claimed to provide consulting services and billed in excess of US$700,000 to Volga-Dnepr in order to help them win tenders. The Office of Internal Oversight Services Procurement Task Force found that, between March 2000 and November 2004, Mr. Yakovlev received funds exceeding US$1.8 million into an off-shore bank account from Volga-Dnepr and ICT, a company working on contract procurement for Volga-Dnepr at the time. The report found that in actuality the sum received could be even higher, as the sources for substantial other sources of funds could not be identified. In a response letter to the report, Volga-Dnepr admits to making payments to Mr. Yakovlev, but insist Mr. Yakovlev was a paid consultant, and the company was unaware of involvement or influence over the bidding process. In the same period, The UN contracted over US$134 million to Volga-Dnepr. The World Bank has listed Yakovlev and Kuznetsov as corruption case asset recovery targets for the Stolen Asset Recovery Initaitive. As of 2019, following years of sustained effort to institute extensive measures (e.g., external annual audits and a strong Code of Ethics) to address and ensure proper employee conduct in procurement matters, Volga Dnepr was awaiting UN action on its request for reinstatement as a UN vendor.