LITHUANIAN PROSECUTORS ISSUED a European arrest warrant for the Russian owner of Portsmouth FC in connection with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets stripped from a local bank, they said today.
Prosecutors said that Vladimir Anotov and his Lithuanian partner Raimundas Baranauskas are the main suspects in a pre-trial investigation into an alleged fraud and money laundering case that is threatening to destroy two Baltic banks.
Lithuania’s Snoras Bank was nationalized last week after regulators discovered Pa huge asset shortfall, while Latvian regulators suspended and took control of Latvijas Krajbanka due to an unexpected outflow of funds over recent days.
Anotov, 36, owned 68 percent of Snoras before it was nationalized and had controlled Latvijas Krajbanka through a 60 percent stake owned by Snoras.
Anotov is believed to spend most of his time in England, while Baranauskas, who held just over 25 percent in Snoras, is also abroad.
The Russian businessman recently undertook an unsuccessful attempt to buy out the Swedish automaker Saab but was prevented from doing so apparently due to a lack of transparency about the origins of his capital.
Janis Brazovskis, an official with Latvia’s Finance and Capital Markets Commission who was appointed to oversee Latvijas Krajbanka, said Wednesday that the attempt to take over Saab might have triggered the downfall of the two Baltic banks.
He told LNT television that the approximate 100 million lats ($200 million) siphoned from the bank were used to increase its charter capital and finance Anotov’s investment projects — including the failed attempt to buy out Saab.
Meanwhile, fallout from the banks’ woes was spreading. Lithuania’s Olympic committee warned that it might not be able to send its athletes to London next summer since its funds were deposited in Snoras.
– Liudas Dapkus
