This week, an extraordinary meeting of the Lithuanian government has been held, which discussed the issue of nationalization of the commercial bank Snoras, which is the fifth largest bank in Lithuania. Until yesterday, it was controlled by the head of Converse Group, a Russian citizen Vladimir Antonov. However, now Snoras has come under the control of the Lithuanian authorities. The scandal began after the Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said that Snoras’s shareholders were deliberately preparing the bank’s bankruptcy transferring the huge amounts to offshore.”
“The evidence suggests that at the beginning of this week funds withdrawals from Lithuania have increased significantly”, - said the President of the Republic Dalia Grybauskaite.
Of course, the fraudulent bankruptcy of the Lithuanian bank, which is the fifth largest bank in terms of assets, is a criminal offense. Moreover, as the Central Bank of Lithuania found, currently there is a gap between the securities on Snoras’s balance and available securities in the amount of about LTL 1.2 bln. (RUB 15 bln.).
All these machinations allow accusing the main Snoras’s owners – Converse Group owner Vladimir Antonov (he owns a 68.1% stake in Snoras) and the bank’s president Raimondas Baranauskas (controls 25.01% of the bank) of fraud
Unfortunately, this scandal may affect Russia as well.
As a matter of fact, as it turned out, Snoras assets were secured by unfinished construction projects of Mirax Group (now Nazvanie.Net) in Moscow. The day before, The Moscow Post wrote that Vladimir Antonov used the finances of Investbank (Russia) and Snoras Bank (Lithuania) controlled by him to finance its automotive business.
Thus, at first, Vladimir Antonov acquired a stake in Spyker Company, and then it, in turn, acquired a stake in Saab. The funds were borrowed from the banks using lending for phoenix operations under unsecured deposits – most often "blank" securities.
Interestingly, to fill in the “hole” in Snoras, Vladimir Antonov agreed upon with the Mirax Group owner Sergei Polonskiy that Nazvanie.Net (formerly Mirax Group) transferred liquid but unfinished construction projects of Nazvanie.Net in Moscow to the same phoenix operations credited by Snoras.
In this case, Polonskiy played a dirty trick with Mirax stakeholders and Antonov – with Snoras’s depositors.
So now both of them may be prosecuted for fraud. By the way, according to the mass media reports, Vladimir Antonov had to transfer pretty large amount of money to the account of Sergei Polonskiy to thank him. This money should have been transferred to his (Polonskiy’s) offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and to Cyprus nominee companies.
So now Antonov got a vast of trouble not only in Russia but also in the EU.
Thus the Swedish authorities did not allow him to buy Saab, English authorities - to open a branch of Snoras Bank, and now Lithuania has nationalized the bank itself ... By the way, in Russia Antonov’s agencies have previously been "spotted" in major corruption and financial scandals.
We shall remind that in 1999, 49% of the shares of Akademkhimbank (future basis of the Antanovs’ financial empire) that was on the verge of bankruptcy were bought by the former Chairman of Informprogress Bank’s Board Aleksandr Antonov and his son, a former employee of the Savings Bank, Vladimir Antonov.
They were supported by the Deputy Chairman of Akademkhimbank’s Board Viktor Yampolskiy, who, according to the journalists, previously worked for the KGB. As a matter of fact, Viktor Yampolskiy made the KGB Higher School graduate Yuriy Molchanov, who had good relationship both with the commandos (including Vityaz detachment, agent Sergey Smirnov) and with the crime bosses (including Lipetsk OCG, crime boss Yuriy Fedorov), the chief of Akademkhimbank’s Security Service
According to the RF Interior Ministry’s line, when the Antonovs came to Akademhimbank, it became engaged primarily with money laundering and cash-out transactions. The Antonovs, Yampolskiy themselves were choosing the customers, Molchanov brought someone as well.
Of course, the Antonovs’ actions did not go unnoticed for the investigators. In early 2002, the IC at the RF Interior Ministry initiated a criminal case, which involved Akademhimbank, and Aleksandr Antonov was named a witness in that case. The IC then carried out the investigation of money laundering through Novator bank and Fluran LLC.
However, according to repute, Antonov was nearly turned into the accused. Obviously, having right people in the FSS helped the banker to escape from the prosecution.
By the way, the Deputy Chairman of the Board Sergei Ponomarev was in charge of the work with the bills of Novator and Fluran in Akademhimbank. However, he was killed. Thus, in which case - all the “sins” of the bank could be attributed not to Antonov but to Ponomarev. Again, in whose interests was he killed? Anyone’s but Antonov’s?
Molchanov’s buddy criminal boss Yuriy Fedorov, who was too much interested in Anton’s business, was killed next. Then Molchanov palled up with the investigator Dzhangr Indzhiev from the IC at the RF Interior Ministry. As a result, Akademkhimbank managed to solve the problem with the police for some period of time.
However, Molchanov’s friendship with Indzhiev ended up sadly. So Molchanov was sentenced to seven years in prison, and Indzhiev was sentenced to several years in a penal colony settlement.
Incidentally, Molchanov and Indzhiev have already been released.
Further on, Akademhimbank continued withdrawals and illegal cash-out. With the support of the Chairman of NEP Bank’s Board Boris Sokalsky, RUB 15 billion was pumped through the Antonov’s bank. Again, Antonov Sr. witnessed in the criminal case.
Then the Antonovs had a serious argument with the deputy chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Andrey Kozlov, who refused to admit Akademhimbank to Deposit Insurance System (DIS).
In a short time, Kozlov was gunned down by the unknown.
Later, the Antonovs renamed Akademhimbank to Conversebank-Moscow, which soon became the Stolichnyi Torgovyi Bank (STB).
That’s exactly this bank (regardless of the name) that was chaired by Sergei Mendeleyev, the current Chairman of Investbank.
In 2008, Converse Bank, Grankombank and Voronezhprombank were affiliated to Kaliningrad Investbank that obtain a license to accept deposits from the population. In 2009, Aleksandr Antonov survived assassination attempt – the financier received five gunshot wounds but escaped death.
Then Antonov fled abroad and asked the Chairman of Investbank’s Board Maksim Skachko and his deputy Igor Dubina to transfer $ 400 mln. overseas.
And now they want to prosecute Antnov for fraud abroad.
What should he do now? Flee to London with Polonskiy?
(http://www.moscow-post.com/economics/litovskie_strasti_vladimira_antonova7908/)
Author: Nikolai Kotov, 2011-11-18 11:12:17
