Lithuania's appeal court to hear Antonov, Baranauskas case in April - BNS EXCLUSIVE

VILNIUS - The Court of Appeal of Lithuania will begin in April hearing the criminal case Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas, the former owners of the collapsed Snoras Bank, who were sentenced to prison in Lithuania in absentia.

Antonov was arrested in France in December, and Lithuania is requesting its extradition. And Baranauskas is believed to be in hiding in Russia.

The appeal court's first hearing is scheduled for April 15, Venta Valcackiene, a spokeswoman for the court, told BNS.

In her words, four appeals were received in this case on November 25, 2024, against Vilnius Regional Court's November 5 ruling, which sentenced Antonov and Baranauskas to 10.5 years in prison for embezzling large amounts of bank assets.

"Appeals have been filed by the defense attorneys of both convicts, requesting that Antonov and Baranauskas be acquitted because it has not been proven that they participated in the commission of the criminal offense," Valcackiene told BNS.

Moreover, she said, other appeals were filed by the French real estate company SCI Courchelang (which owns a 8 million euros summer house in France and is linked to Antonov) and an individual whose name is known to BNS, requesting that the part of the judgment restricting the ownership of their property until the end of the case and declaring it liable to be confiscated be overturned.

The Prosecutor General's Office has informed BNS that it has not appealed the first instance court's ruling because it is satisfied with it.

"The judgment (of the regional court - BNS) is lawful and well-founded. The court imposed the penalties proposed by the prosecutor, so there is no reason for the prosecutor to appeal the verdict. Appeals were filed by two convicted persons and two persons whose property was subject to temporary restrictions on ownership rights," Rita Stundiene, a spokeswoman of the prosecution service, told BNS.

In November 2024, Antonov and Baranauskas were sentenced to prison for eight intentional crimes, with Antonov recognized as the main organizer. Both defendants were also ordered to pay 375.18 million euros in damages, have 105 million euros worth of their criminally acquired assets confiscated, and have their assets in Lithuania, the United Kingdom and France seized.

The Prosecutor General's Office referred the criminal case to court in 2019, after a pre-trial investigation lasting more than seven years.

Antonov's former lawyer Rolandas Tilindis told the public radio LRT on Tuesday that until the Court of Appeal finds the person guilty, he is considered innocent, and the scope of the appeal process is usually defined by the appeals - "they will decide what should be examined."

Meanwhile, Romualdas Draksas, a lawyer not involved in this case, told the LRT radio that he believes that once Antonov is transferred to Lithuania, "he will try to start everything from scratch in the court of appeal - he will demand a re-examination of the evidence, present his own versions of events, and request the examination of new witnesses. He will have such rights and it will not be possible to refuse him."

According to Draksas, the possibility of extraditing Baranauskas remains unclear: "If he is in Russia, it is virtually impossible, but if he has left for elsewhere, it may be possible, but we do not know what Lithuania is doing in this regard."

EXTRADITION FROM FRANCE

A court in the northwestern French city of Rennes will on Thursday, January 29, hear Antonov's extradition case.

Antonov was arrested in Baden, France, on December 9 under a European arrest warrant issued by Lithuania's Prosecutor General's Office.

In 2023, Antonov in Russia disappeared without a trace, and his family asked for him to be declared dead. The media reported that in May 2025, he was exposed as living in France under a Ukrainian name and surname, and in order to obtain a residence permit, he had created a new legend about his past.

Snoras was nationalized and its operations were suspended at the end of 2011.

It was announced at the time that Antonov and Baranauskas had embezzled 509.18 million euros, caused 466.67 million euros in damages to Snoras and its creditors, and squandered another 14.5 million euros.