More than EUR 2.4 million in ABLV Bank declared as laundered

  • 2022-07-01
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - The Economic Affairs Court has decided to declare more than EUR 2.4 million in an individual's account in ABLV Bank as laundered money, LETA learned from the prosecution.

A pre-trial process discovered that the individual's money have been moved, imitating transactions with a goal to transfer them farther away from the source - a legal entity with signs of a shell company.

The court decided to confiscate the funds and transfer them into the state budget.

The decision can be appealed before Riga Regional Court within ten days.

As reported, the Finance and Capital Market Commission, acting on the instructions from the European Central Bank, ordered ABLV Bank to stop all payments as of February 19, 2018 following a report by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury about ABLV Bank's involvement in international money laundering schemes and corruption. On February 24, 2018 the Finance and Capital Market Commission found an occurrence of unavailability of deposits at ABLV Bank.

Shareholders of ABLV Bank decided in February 2018 to start the liquidation process in order to protect interests of its clients and creditors. ABLV Bank believes that in this way it will be possible to ensure active protection of its customers, the bank said in a statement.

At the end of September 2017, ABLV Bank was the third largest bank in Latvia by assets. The bank's majority shareholders Olegs Fils, Ernests Bernis and Nika Berne own, directly and indirectly, 87.03 percent of the bank's share capital.

ABLV Bank rejected all accusations. The Corruption Prevention Bureau has announced that it has not found any evidence of the involvement of the bank's management in corruption as claimed by FinCEN in its report.