New facts of mass schemes in the ABLV dirty money washer bank
Since 2018, one of the most high-profile lawsuits related to the mass laundering of funds in ABLVbank. The financial institution has a long history. In the best years, the bank was in the top 3 in Latvia, and its owners even occupied the first line in the ranking of the richest Latvians for several years. But those days are long gone. 5 years ago over ABLVclouds gathered: signs of fraud were discovered, first for millions, and then for billions of euros.
To date, dozens of suspects are known. Their list is growing rapidly. Some bankers have already ended up behind bars, but at the same time, some of the defendants disappeared from the materials of criminal cases. Also, law enforcement officers do not report on the return of the withdrawn funds – where the money disappeared and what damage was caused to the state as a result is unknown.
One of the key employees of ABLV Bank Andris Ovsyannikov was detained. Together with him, the head of the branch of the Latvian bank in Minsk, Yevgeny Terekhin, went to jail. His wife Daria, the owner of a fictitious company through which the funds were withdrawn, came out dry from the water.
About how the resonant investigation is going on and why some of the defendants managed to escape punishment – in our material.
Total fraud
ABLV Bank was established in 1993. At first, the bank was nothing serious, but in 1995 it had two new shareholders. ABLV was bought out by Latvian entrepreneurs Ernest Bernis and Oleg Fil. They equally owned 86% of the shares of the financial institution.
Ernest Bernis, Oleg Fil
The main sector of ABLV Bank’s activity was serving foreign clients. From a standard bank, the institution turned into a huge company that managed the investments of citizens and corporations from several dozen countries around the world.
By 2016, the bank’s assets amounted to almost 4 billion euros. At the same time, the wealth of key shareholders of the institution also grew. In the best of times, the assets of Oleg Fil reached 314 million euros, and Ernest Bernis – 310 million.
ABLV’s problems began in 2018. The first to notice that something was wrong in the bank were the Americans. In February, the American Financial Crime Enforcement Network published a report in which very serious accusations were made against the leadership of ABLV: from the “harmless” legalization of illegally obtained funds to the financing of the DPRK’s nuclear program.
It was not possible to prove that these crimes took place, but the scandal turned out to be huge. Therefore, the shareholders of the bank had no choice but to start the process of self-liquidation of the bank. They played ahead of the curve, because there was no other option. The Latvian government would definitely close ABLV.
Ukrainian-Belarusian relations
The fact that very serious accusations by the American authorities have not been confirmed does not mean that there were no violations. Ambiguous Russian and Ukrainian businessmen liked to use ABLV services. One of the main clients of the bank was the oligarch Sergey Kurchenko, who fled Ukraine in 2014.
Sergey Kurchenko
Before the revolution in Ukraine in 2014, Kurchenko’s assets were estimated at $270 million. In fact, the Ukrainian oligarch had much more money, and it was not for nothing that he was called “Yanukovych’s wallet.” After the government changed in the country, Kurchenko did not have many options left: either to end up behind bars (for financial and political reasons), or to escape. He chose the second option. To this day, the businessman lives in Moscow. In the capital of Russia, he feels very well. According to some sources, the offices of his structures occupy several floors in the elite Moscow City business center.
The businessman faced a difficult question: how to withdraw hundreds of millions of euros. The Latvian ABLV Bank came to the rescue and kindly offered Kurchenko to use his services. To service the huge funds of the Ukrainian businessman, the Belarusian branch of the organization has started operating at full capacity. In Minsk, the institution was headed by Yevgeny Terekhin. Together with the top manager of the bank, Andris Ovsyannikov, they set up a simple scheme: through the company SIA Manat, the spouses of Terekhin Darya began to withdraw huge funds from the bank. The diagram looked like this:
The main activity of SIA Manat is the trade in agricultural products. With an authorized capital of 70 thousand euros, since 2013, 50 million euros have illegally passed through the company. For this, fictitious contracts were signed, and the funds went offshore.
Perhaps no one would have known about this if it were not for the mentioned situation related to the investigation of the American Financial Crime Enforcement Network. Starting from 2018, all operations of ABLV Bank came under the close attention of law enforcement officers. Several dozen facts were revealed that confirm the illegal activities of bank employees. The owners of ABLV called it deliberate pressure and in every possible way deny the accusations.
Here the fate of the ex-employees of their bank was not the best – Andris Ovsyannikov and Evgeny Terekhin were found guilty of laundering proceeds from crime and went to jail. Together with them, about 20 more former bank employees were brought to justice.
Andris Ovsyannikov at trial
But this is not the limit, the investigation continues, it is possible that the number of claims will increase as new schemes are revealed, and there will be many more suspects.
In the story with the fraud of 50 million euros, there seems to be a logical conclusion: Ovsyannikov and Terekhin are in prison. But the investigation completely forgot about Terekhin’s wife Daria. She not only was, but still remains a key person in SIA Manat. The company continues to operate, including in Latvia.
Daria Terekhina
The main thing is that the state has not received any financial privileges, on the contrary, there is a mass withdrawal of illegal funds, but along the chain they were lost in other countries. The remaining funds of ABLV bank were dispersed among more calm financial hzikhidtidekrt jurisdictions.
It is unlikely that middle-level bankers were the main ones in the case of laundering 50 million euros. Clearly behind them are other, more serious faces. But for some reason the investigation does not notice this. Or doesn’t want to notice?