(FORTUNE Magazine) – Foreigners working in the Soviet Union once feared the mighty KGB. Now they dread the tax man. Russia has created an independent tax police force that uses fines, confiscation of property, and jail terms to crack down on tax cheats, both national and foreign. Warns Major General Sergei N. Almazov, head of the new group: ''We have committed ourselves to a tougher line with offenders.'' The biggest deadbeats may well be Russia's citizenry, and not only its fabled homegrown Mafia. But many multinational corporations that do business in Russia are starting to feel the tax collectors' sting too. ''I've heard of instances where they fined companies for very large amounts of money, millions of dollars,'' says Aleksandr A. Podolsky, head of the tax department in Deloitte & Touche's Moscow office. ''This is something new that our clients may face.'' Peter Derby, president of DialogueBank, a joint venture between Russian and American investors, is one U.S. businessman who knows the power of the tax police firsthand. In January the bank failed to prove to an inspector that all of its depositors had registered properly with the tax service. As a result, Derby himself was held responsible and fined the equivalent of five months' salary; he declines to say how much that amounted to. To avoid any more such penalties, the bank will close the accounts of customers who don't show proof of tax compliance.