Details of the disappearance of 100 million
from Latvijas Krājbanka to foreign banks have become known. Moreover, it is
clear that most likely the bank itself is to be liquidated as it is not able to
fully meet its obligations to depositors and creditors.
The state police chief Ints Kjuzis told that
JSC Latvijas Krājbanka was found to lack of LVL 100 million.
He confirmed the information on arrest of
the bank’s president Ivars Prieditis and apprehension of the remaining members
of Latvijas Krājbanka board - Martins Zalans, Svetlana Ovchinnikova and
Dzintars Pelcbergs, whose
extent of involvement in shortage is currently being determined.
Co-owner of the bank Vladimir Antonov is
recognized suspect in a criminal process as well, and the issue of putting him
in the international wanted list is resolved.
Vidzeme Court of Riga suburbs issued an
arrest warrant for Prieditis. According to his lawyer Saulvedis Varpinsh,
Prieditis was arrested Monday when he was going to the police with a statement
that as a result of his ill-considered actions the bank might have incurred
losses. The President of Latvijas Krājbanka admitted that he signed the
financial documents in violation of the established procedure.
The lawyer did not specify the amount, but
noted that we are talking about millions of lats. Criminal proceedings are
initiated under the Article Abuse of power, but there‘s no mercenary motive.
Several searches wee carried out as part of
the case, including at work and at home of Prieditis.
The lawyer said that he, like Prieditis
himself, is indignant at the court decision of the arrest, since his client
came to the police himself with a guilty plea and was willing to cooperate. The arrest was heavy blow to
Prieditis, which as
a result was taken to
a hospital.
According to the head of the Financial and
Capital Market Commission (FCMC) Irena Krumane, these funds are pledged in
favor of third parties, while the FCMC was not notified of this pledge. The
FCMC has no
evidence in whose favour the money is pledged.
According to Krumane, generally three states
and five banks are involved in this case. The investigation is going to request
legal assistance from other states.
As reported on Wednesday, November 23, in
the TV program “900
seconds” on TV channel LNT by
the interim receiver of the bank, vice-president of the of the Financial and
Capital Market Commission (FCMC) Janis Brazovskis, depositors' money was used
for two purposes – increasing equity capital of Latvijas Krājbanka and
financing private projects of its co-owner Vladimir Antonov, in particular,
plans to purchase SAAB auto group.
The money is still owned by Latvijas
Krājbanka but burdened by liens.
According to Brazovskis, pledge agreements
for LVL 100 million are in a few foreign banks. They have already requested
information on these transactions, because Latvijas Krājbanka has no relevant
documents. So far the information has been obtained from one bank only - pledge
documents were signed on August 11, and they become due in mid-December.
The FCMC representative reported that based
on what the former president of the bank Ivar Prieditis said it follows that
transactions were intended as a temporary solution for a few days. The remaining Latvijas Krājbanka board members were not informed of them.
“We are
talking about a crime, even
a series of crimes,” - said Brazovskis,
adding that there was no advertent confession on behalf of Prieditis, i.e. the FCMC revealed the shortage in the bank.
According to him, the transactions can be
canceled only in theory, but in practice it will be a long, complicated process
and certainly not cheap. Suspension of the bank’s activity on November 17 would
not help to solve the problems as they had arisen much earlier. From November 17, the FCMC got full control of Latvijas Krājbanka activities.
He also noted that the bank is likely
subject to liquidation, as it is unable to fully meet its obligations to
depositors and creditors.
The depositors will be paid LVL 149 million
from the guarantee fund, while another LVL 200 million for these purposes will
be provided by the State Treasury in the form of loans to be repaid after the
bank's assets are sold. According to Brazovskis, the deposits guaranteed by the
government of up to LVL 70 thousand will be repaid to the depositors as early
as before Christmas.
Lithuanian
affairs of Antonov
Snoras Bank is the fifth largest bank in
Lithuania. Until recent events it was controlled by the head of Convers Group,
Russian citizen Vladimir Antonov. However, now Snoras fell under control of the
Lithuanian authorities. The scandal began after the Prime Minister Andrius
Kubilius had said that Snoras shareholders “deliberately prepared collapse of a
bank transferring huge amounts to offshore”.
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.
All these machinations allow accusing the main Snoras’s
owners – Converse Group owner Vladimir Antonov (he holds a 68.1% stake in Snoras) and the bank’s President Raimondas Baranauskas (controls 25.01% of the
bank) of fraud?!
How did it happen?
According to
The Moscow Post, Russia has faced one of the biggest frauds in the real estate
market wrapped up by two its citizens – the owner of the Swedish group Saab and
Lithuanian Bank Snoras Vladimir Antonov together with the owner of the bankrupt
Mirax Group (now – a group of companies Nazvanie.Net) Sergey Polonskiy. The first one replaced
fictitious assets in one of the largest Lithuanian banks Snoras with highly
liquid unfinished construction in Moscow owned by Mirax. While the second one
actually withdrew abroad a significant portion of his capital – consisting of
money of Russian defrauded equity holders and creditors. The Government of
Lithuania and the Russian authorities will have to cooperate dealing with this
criminal scheme.
The fraud amount – hundreds of millions of
dollars. Although it is officially declared that the debt of Nazvanie.Net is $
45 million, but in documentary reality it is considerably more and amounts to
hundreds of millions of dollars.
We were able
to talk with several people from the surrounding of Vladimir Antonov, who told
the details of the grand fround. According to them, the whole business of
Vladimir Antonov was built on a simple scheme. He bought and created banks, in
particular, he owned the Russian “Investment Bank”
and Lithuanian bank Snoras, beginning to actively attract depositors' funds. It
was money of the private companies and individuals who were promised high
interest rates. Tens and hundreds of millions of dollars so attracted were
withdrawn from financial institutions and allotted for various Antonov’s
projects, primarily in the automotive industry.
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. “Antonov acted the same way as the oligarch Sergei Pugachev,
actively funding its business at the expense of Mezhprombank depositors,” - note our interlocutors. But Pugachev had only one bank,
while Antonov hada lot of them. This, in the case of the emergence of financial
problems, enabled to plug “holes” in one bank at the expense of the other.
This lasted
until 2010, when the Central Bank of Russia and the Lithuanian authorities
became interested in the activities of Antonov’s agencies. Investbank and
Snoras have a huge number of private depositors, so that the collapse of these
financial institutions would have caused panic among the population. And in
2010, it became obvious - Investbank and Snoras are so depleted that in case of
the minor economic instability, they will just collapse and tens of thousands
of people will lose their money. The issue was particularly thorny in
Lithuania, where there is no analogue to the Russian Deposit Insurance Agency,
which in the case of bankruptcy or revocation of a license of the bank
reimburses the private depositors for their loss.
Vladimir Antonov managed to settle it with
the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. His father-in-law, a former KGB
officer Viktor Yampolskiy had longstanding friendship with Gennady Melikyan,
who until October 2011 served as the first deputy chairman of the Bank of
Russia. However, it was impossible to solve this problem in Lithuania using
strings. Snoras is one of the major banks in the country, its collapse, as
already mentioned, would be a real disaster for Lithuania. And Antonov then would be inevitably prosecuted.
Lithuania is the European Union member
state, so Antonov, in case of negative developments, could turn into a castaway
in all European countries. And this despite the fact that all of his assets are
located in the UK, Sweden and Switzerland, and he has lived in London for a
long time. A “hole” in Snoras was about USD 100 million - the money that had been
withdrawn to shadow companies under unsecured deposits. Antonov and his team
began to urgently look for a way out. And that’s when the fate brought him to Sergei Polonskiy.
By 2010, Polonskiy himself and his Mirax Group had actually
been bankrupt. Back in 2008, the pet project of the oligarch stopped receiving
money from the co-investors (buyers of apartments), and nearly all sites under
construction were frozen. By that time, the debts of Polonskiy’s agencies had been estimated at between USD 600 million to USD 1 billion. According to our sources, by
2010 the former oligarch was only thinking about how to keep personal assets
and withdraw them abroad as safely and quietly as possible. And he was ready to
consider various proposals, including the most shadowy ones.
It is known
that Vladimir Antonov was introduced to Polonskiy by the current nominee of Investbank
Sergei Mendeleyev. According to one of the sources, Mendeleyev, in turn, was
introduced to Polonskiy
by the leader of the party “Patriots of Russia” and also construction magnate
Gennadiy Semigin.
Mendeleyev brought Polonskiy
to Victor Yampolskiy , and after a brief consultation the three of them flew to
London to Antonov. The talks were held on the banks of the Thames at first, and
then in Antonov’s chalet in Switzerland. The parties discussed the
possibility to put
across grand scam.
Under it, fictitious deposits in Snoras bank
have been replaced by registered ownership of Mirax Group for large sites in
Moscow (Dubrovskaja Sloboda, Kutuzovskaya Milya, Mirax Park and high-rise
business centre “Federation”). To do this, facilities of Polonskiy having connections with Russia’s
Presidential Administration signed security agreements in the name of third
parties – the same "shadowy companies". In fact, they pledged their
facilities under money already withdrawn from Snoras.
“To hide this fraud a number
of different contracts were entered into, some of them were executed in
hindsight, we do not know all their details, - told our sources. – Usually, in
such cases, Antonov’s banks sign joint activity agreement. Under it, one party,
in this case – it's Mirax Group or
Nazvanie.Net, undertakes to provide collateral for loans to third parties and
other parties – Antonov’s banks - undertake to invest in Mirax development. The
latter obligations are usually made extremely blurred on purpose. As far as we
know, some legend about Mirax Group receiving money from Snoras at certain
times was created on paper to cover Polonskiy. In reality, there were no payments. This whole scam pursued
other goals – withdrawals of Polonskiy’s money abroad."
Thus, the financial hole in Snoras in the amount
of USD 75 million was
closed with the money of defrauded equity holders and creditors of Polonskiy. Now the bank loans are secured not with
the obligations of shadow companies, but with real and liquid, although
unfinished sites in Moscow. However, the total amount of liabilities to the
Lithuanian bank, according to the documents of shadow companies, is even more
and makes a few hundred million dollars, told our sources close to Vladimir
Antonov.
Sergei Polonskiy, in his turn, stands to great gain as well.
First, Antonov and Yampolskiy undertook to gradually transfer large amount of
money to specified offshore accounts. Businessmen were going to gain from Saab
resale (thesenegotiations are underway with the Chinese) and from other
projects.
Polonskiy is not afraid of prosecution for quite
prosaic reasons. Among those who got apartments in Mirax facilities at discount
or almost for free - dozens of senior law enforcement officials. For example,
Novaya Gazeta, in its investigation, found that in a luxury residential complex
“Mirax Park” four apartments worth up to a million
dollars received ... Prosecutor General's Office of the
Russian Federation:
In
his interview published in Issue No. 118
of Novaya newspaper, Sergei Polonskiy told me that he was ready to sign a
petition of the equity holders to the Prosecutor General's Office. And they demanded investigation into the situation with Avanta.
Sergey
Yurievich even said that
he is quite surprised with the inaction of the Prosecutor General's Office, where he himself had written repeatedly wrote. No I seem to understand what he may have meant.
According
to our source close to the law enforcement agencies, four apartments worth from hundred thousand up
to a million dollars in a residential complex “Mirax Park” in Western district of Moscow are registered in the name of...
the Prosecutor General's Office
of the Russian Federation. As a legal entity.
The editorial office of the newspaper has
the numbers of the investment contracts with CJSC “PIF Concordia Mutual Fund Asset Management” (Mirax agency).
94 Vernadskoho
avenue, bld. 1, ap. 1. Contract dated 18.06.2007 К-PIF-182.
94 Vernadskoho
avenue, bld. 1, ap. 6. Contract dated
18.06.2007 К-PIF-181.
94 Vernadskoho avenue, bld. 2,
ap. 1. Contract dated
18.06.2007 К-PIF-184.
94 Vernadskoho avenue, bld. 1, ap. 6. Contract dated 18.06.2007 К-PIF-183.
Corresponding request has been sent to the
Prosecutor General’s Office.
Secondly, Polonskiy actually withdrew all of his most
profitable assets abroad. And not they
are not just withdrawn, they came in ward of Snoras depositors - Lithuanian
residents whose funds were allotted for loans secured by the fictitiously
pledged sites of Mirax Group. Moscow authorities and other Russian creditors of
the companies from amorphous structure Nazvanie.Net, wishing to take unfinished
sites from bankrupt Polonskiy, will actually have to infringe on the rights of EU citizens.
Thirdly, all these fake loans were
originally executed at ridiculous rates - at 7% per annum. (In 2010, major
banks lent to the Polonskiy’s
companies at 20-30% only). In the case of desire and emergence of funds, Mirax
Group owner could easily regain assets safely sheltered for some time. The
agreement between Antonov and Polonskiy envisaged this option as well.
As a result, co-investors of Polonskiy companies and capital authorities now will
have to fight with the small but proud part of the EU. And all the fraud
participants were extremely pleased with the results. According to our sources,
in early November 2011, Polonskiy, Antonov and Yampolsky met abroad again. “After the meeting was over, Antonov and
Yampolsky came in very high spirits, saying that all gets an A and everything
is going very well,” -
said our sources.
Incidentally, it was just then when bankrupt
flew to New York with his lawyer Aleksandr Dobrovinsky, an expert in affairs of
exiled oligarch Boris Berezovskiy (see below reference on this aspect). Visit to the USA with the lawyer
Dobrovinsky was also necessary to negotiate with the authorities' of “Russia’s
overseas partners” the guarantee obtaining a permanent residence permit for
Sergei Polonskiy
in this country.
After all, “non-businessman” as he calls himself,
is clearly not planning to satisfy the claims of
co-investors and creditors whose
money was withdrawn to his offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands and the Cypriot nominal companies
with undetectable beneficiaries. But he
is quite rich and famous and has
lots of information on Russian officials to become a
possible option of barter, in which the USA gets another
persecuted denouncer of “sanguinary
regime” and take him under the protection – its own or of the
British crown.
P.S. Polonskiy has not yet succeeded in getting his part
of the money from the sale of Saab. Spyker has already settled all issues with
one company from China, but on November 9 American GM, which also holds Saab
shares, refused to transfer technology to the Chinese. Without them, the deal
makes no sense. It is noteworthy that during the time when Spyker was trying to
persuade GM to sign a contract with China, Polonskiy, as has already been said, was in the USA
as well.
P.S.S. BAB affairs of Sergey Polonskiy
There is a French expression Cherchez la
femme which literally means “look for a woman”.
She should be looked for, when a person behaves unusually or motivation for his
actions is unclear. If Russian major businessman behaves inadequately one must
look for BAB (pun in Russian – baba is
vernacular synonym for ‘woman’).
Sergei Polonskiy and Boris Berezovskiy are old acquaintances. They share not only
a circle of friends, lawyers, but also common business interests.
Recently, at the instigation of Berezovskiy, a string of the Russian oligarchs came to
the UK capital. Some hide money from creditors and the authorities, others come
with intent to launch a legal wrangle and gain the points.
Both are welcome guests of Boris Berezovskiy. Fugitive oligarch has already announced
its readiness to lend a helping hand to Yelena Baturina - the wife of his old
friend - a former Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov.
When sworn son of Baturina Sergei Polonskiy needed legal aid, he was immediately
appointed BAB’s personal lawyer Andrew Stevenson, who works in tandem with the
Russian 'devil's advocate' Aleksandr Dobrovinsky.
We shall remind that in September 2011 when
recording NTVshniki program the Head of the National Reserve Bank Aleksandr
Lebedev hit the head of Mirax Group Sergei Polonskiy as a result of the conflict in live. After
the incident with Lebedev, Polonskiy filed a lawsuit to the British court.
Sergei Polonskiy and Yelena Baturina have very warm
relationships. The first lady of Moscow was attracted by the young businessman’s
readiness to do the most reckless actions. It was Polonskiy who got from the “mother” the center cut of Moscow lands.
Boris Abramovich is known in inner circles
as the man who does not forgive offenses, but prefers to use others to take revenge. Aleksandr
Lebedev is just the one whom BAB owes for the past.
Lebedev’s conflict with Berezovskiy dates back to 2003. It was then that the
president of the National Reserve Bank Aleksandr Lebedev sued Boris Berezovskiy for his words in an interview to Novaya
Gazeta. Berezovskiy
accused the banker of a number of frauds, including with the Ukrainian debts.
Lebedev then
claimed that Berezovskiy
carried out a systematic campaign against him for two reasons. The first - the
desire to influence Russia’s internal politics, including Moscow Mayor
elections. The second - a try to limit attempts of Lebedev, who then became a
shareholder with a 30 percent stake in Russia's largest airline, to enter into
details of this company’s activities. Aleksandr
Lebedev then accused Berezovskiy of bringing airlines into bankruptcy and announced that Swiss
prosecutor's office is conducting its own investigation – “case of Andava firm” registered in Switzerland through
which millions of dollars have been transferred to the foreign banks. Lebedev
considered that his activity in the case of refund of airline’s funds caused
Berezovskiy’s action.
By the way, in 2003, Mr. Berezovskiy’s interests were already represented by a lawyer Andrew
Stevenson.
It is a closely guarded secret when
Berezovskiy’s and Polonskiy’s paths crossed for the first time. Even
the inner circle of the bankrupt developer is not privy to these details. But
the invisible hand of Berezovskiy repeatedly saved Polonskiy from all sorts of woes.
In 2009, Polonskiy’s company was to be completely acquired by
Alpha Group for the debts. To cool down the businessman shocking the audience
disguised Specialised Designation Police Detachment visited Mirax office.
But in less than a few days, Alpha having all
the possibilities to take over Mirax suddenly got into a dialogue. Its outcome
was the agreement on Mirax debt restructuring of $ 241 million. Polonskiy promised to pay one half in cash, and the
other – with the areas in Federation tower. When asked to comment on the
details of the deal Mirax head put out the tongue to his conversation partners.
Why then Alpha’s tenacious “claws” were clenched at the last moment? They say
that Mirax is supported by Alpha’s old friends. It is noteworthy that the day
before the crucial negotiations with Alpha several dozen calls to London were
made from Polonskiy’s
phone. At that time, the most authoritative Alpha’s London friend was Boris
Berezovskiy. Alpha’s co-owner
Petr Aven and Boris Berezovskiy have very long-standing relationship, not only business, but also
friendly.
Petr Aven’s father Oleg Aven was the
academic advisor of postgraduate Berezovskiy. When Petr Aven took the first steps in
business, this time it was Boris Abramovich who gave him his first lessons. For
example, in 1992, Aven became Berezovskiy advisor in LogoVAZ JSC.
The decision by Tambov criminal community to
help Sergei Polonskiy’s
business tipping off the perch certainly could not do without Berezovskiy consent. In 2009, billions of rubles were
allocated from Tambov “cash
common fund” for salvation “friend Sergei”. Tambov central Vladimir Golubev started to
monitor how and on what these funds were spent. In 2011, he officially joined
Polonskiy’s company Board of
Directors and is now trying to wrestle away from the equity holders unfinished
residential complex in Montenegro (link)
It was Tambov and Chechen criminal
gangs who performed at BAB’s request
all the dirty work and kept an eye on the part of the oligarch’s investment.
Tambov criminal gang leaders
and Berezovskiy had been friends
since the early 90s. At first they had totally legal relations. Then Tambov criminal
gangs performed also informal instructions for
Berezovskiy. For example,
according to one version, considered by the investigation, Vladislav Listyev
was killed Tambov criminal gang killer by the order of
Berezovskiy (link).
Berezovskiy and Polonskiy have a common sworn friend
– Yevgeniy Chichvarkin.
Eccentric former owner of Euroset have long been familiar with Boris Berezovskiy and not only maintains
friendly relations (e.g., follows Berezovskiy’s advice, who strongly recommends Chichvarkin to return to
Russia), but goes with him for demonstration to the Russian Embassy in London.
This joint campaign took place in summer of 2010, when the protesters expressed
their solidarity with Strategy 31 movement also supporting Article 31 of the
Russian Constitution.
Polonskiy maintains warm relations
with Chichvarkin. Moreover, he has already decided to buy real estate in London
to be closer to his friends Zhenya (Chichvarkin) and Borya (Berezovskiy). The reporters found out
some detail of how Polonskiy
was choosing his house in a foreign country. As the head of one of the agencies
involved in the sale of the most expensive houses in London told to Tvoy Den,
real estate that Polonskiy
was interested in was limited to prestigious areas of Chelsea, Kensington,
Knightsbridge, Mayfair, Belgravia and Marylebone. Prices for houses in these
areas reach tens of millions of pounds (link).
By the way, when the friend Zhenya had
problems with the criminal code, Polonskiy’s employee Mikhail Dvorkovich was seconded
to defend him to the leadership of the country.
First Mikhail
Dvorkovich asked his brother - presidential aide Arkadiy Dvorkovich – to help a businessman to
join United Russia party. The first deputy head of the Kremlin administration,
Vladislav Surkov, was also asked to assist in this. However, Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin pitched against Chichvarkin. He to Surkov, that if he would
continue to defend "this felon, he will have to forfeit his office for
this." After that Surkov had to publicly disown Polonskiy and Chichvarkin’s company. And in
such a tough manner that no one had any doubts about Surkov’s loyalty to
Vladimir Putin (link)
However, Dvorkovich brothers kept trying to
help Chichvarkin even after Putin’s unambiguous signals. For example, a known
case is when, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, presidential aide Arkadiy Dvorkovich tried for a million dollars to
bring the former Euroset co-owner to President Dmitry Medvedev. However, as not
only the media (link), but also Vladimir Putin found out about the upcoming
meeting of the disgraced businessman and head of the state, it did not take place.
