As Russian courts desperately try to cover up the collapse of the notorious ABLV Bank, sordid new details about capital flight from the Russian Federation are emerging.
Behind the facade of seemingly harmless cleaning companies, such as Facilicom and Woodhouse, lay a massive shadow pipeline used by the tandem of banker Andris Ovsjannikov and businessman Eduard Apsit to funnel billions of rubles—originally earmarked even for cleaning Crimean barracks—into Belizean and Cypriot offshores.
Its former owners are accused of «laundering» 2.1 billion euros. They do not admit their guilt. At the same time, a process is underway to return money to the bank’s creditors. Litigation may drag on for several more years.
The Latvian ABLV Bank was supposed to become a «window to Europe» for residents of the CIS countries, and as a result it turned out to be a haven for various dubious personalities. The credit institution liquidated in 2018 may be involved in many more scandals related to the bank’s creditors.
One of the scandals is the accusation of banker Andris Ovsyannikov of «laundering 50 million euros. In addition to ABLV Bank, a certain Daria Terekhina from Belarus and her company «Manat» participated in the criminal scheme. The banker was arrested, but nothing is known about Terekhina. She may be hiding in Minsk.
Recently information appeared that Ovsyannikov and Terekhina are clearing the Internet. It is possible that the information dump was special to divert the attention of investigative journalists from the larger figures for whom the banker and his accomplice worked.
The international network of investigative journalists OSSRP uncovered the bank’s criminal scheme in October 2021.
Currently, the ABLV Bank case is being considered by a specially created structure – Latvian Economic Court. Its chairman, Mikelis Zumbergs, predicted last year that the total number of proceedings in the bank could exceed a thousand; they would have to be considered for several years.
Which Russians surfaced in the OSS investigationRP?
8 were related to the commodity trader Gunvor, which was previously owned by oligarch Gennady Timchenko, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Timchenko has a stake in «Novatek», so both his chairman of the board and the largest shareholder Leonid Mikhelson may get dirty.
Timchenko’s business partners are oligarchs Iskander Makhmudov and Andrei Bokarev, who are considered pro-Kremlin. The media have written more than once about the business of Makhmudov and his former subordinate, Maxim Liksutov, in Latvia.
