Ūkio bankas

Ūkio Bankas was a Lithuanian commercial bank based in Kaunas. More than 50% of shares are owned by Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov who therefore is in the control of the bank.[1] It was the fifth largest and oldest private bank in Lithuania.

AB Ūkio bankas
TypePublic company
Nasdaq Baltic: UKB1L
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1989
Defunct2013
Headquarters
Kaunas
,
Lithuania
Key people
Gintaras Ugianskis (Chairman of the Board)
ProductsRetail banking, mortgage loans, corporate banking
Websitehttp://www.ub.lt
Ūkio Bankas branch in Laisvės Alėja, Kaunas

In October 2006, during an internet conference on the news portal Delfi.lt Vladimir Romanov announced his plans of selling his shares to the strategic investor. GE Money, a branch of General Electric, as one of the possible buyers was mentioned by Romanov.[2]

In common with other banks Ūkio Bankas suffered from the effects of credit crunch and on 26 August 2008, rating agency Standard & Poor downgraded the banks status from stable to negative.[3]

The organisation sponsored Lithuanian football club FBK Kaunas and Scottish team Hearts. Romanov was the owner of Hearts and a board member of FBK Kaunas.

Ūkio bankas has been associated with money laundering known as the ŪkioLeaks[4] or Troika Laundromat.[5][6][7] Reported by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) as the Russian Laundering Machine on 22 November 2011,[8] Ūkio bankas[9] used Sergey Magnitsky's stolen Hermitage Capital Management subsidiaries[10][lower-alpha 1] HSBC Guernsey Ltd,[lower-alpha 2] OOO Rilend, OOO Parfenion, and OOO Markhaon[lower-alpha 3] to finance through Bristoll, Nomirex and Tormex, Al-Shabaab's Russian weapons built by Ukraine and pro Kremlin South Sudan militants weapons transfers from Ukraine.[14][15][lower-alpha 4] Sergei Roldugin was a client during this money laundering scheme.[19][20]

Arnis Lagzdins was the compliance official at Ukio Bankas during the money laundering and had previously held the same position at Parex Bank in Latvia when very large sums were money laundered allegedly through Parex Bank and its sister firm Overseas Services by Vladimir Putin, Yuri Chaika, and the Russian Mafia including the Tambovskaya Organized Crime Group which looted various governments according to Spanish prosecutors.[19][21][22][23]

In February 2013, the bank was revealed to have poor asset quality, weak risk management and lack of proper operating data. The check also revealed that the bank has ignored the central bank's recommendation to reduce operating risks. On 12 February, the Bank of Lithuania in accordance with Art. 76 of the Law on Banks of the Republic of Lithuania (the “Law on Banks”) announced a partial and temporal restriction on activities (the “Moratorium”) of AB Ūkio bankas.[24] Ukio was removed from the Lithuanian stock exchange later that month,[25] with many of its assets and liabilities transferred to Šiaulių bankas.

See also

Notes
  1. Diron Trade LLP, a stolen Magnitsky company with a Great Britain postal box, assisted in $5.8 billion in money laundering transfers between Swedbank's baltic subsidiaries and Danske Bank's branch in Tallinn during 6 months in 2010 and 2011 according to SVT.[11]
  2. The Hermitage Capital Management owned company HSBC Guernsey Ltd was stolen in autumn 2007 by the Kazan, Tatarstan company OOO Pluton owned by Viktor Markelov.[10]
  3. Magnitsky maintained that the three Russia-based companies OOO Rilend, OOO Parfenion, and OOO Markhaon were stolen by Pluton Ltd. Viktor Markelov became owner of Pluton Ltd. in July 2007.[12] The Hermitage Capital Management owned Cyprus-based subsidiaries, Glendora Holdings Ltd. and Kone Holdings Ltd., had 100% ownership of Riland Ltd. and Parfenion Ltd., and Makhaon Ltd., respectively.[13]
  4. Under pro Russia, pro Kremlin, and pro Putin Viktor Yanukovych's second government, three weapons shipments were authorized for Mombasa, Kenya and the Kenyan military of 110 Ukraine built T-72 tanks and their shells, Grad rocket launchers, artillery pieces, anti aircraft guns, RPG-7 grenade launchers, ammunition, and five containers of AKM assault rifles. However, one shipment was hijacked by Al-Shabaab militants associated with Somali pirates and all three shipments' cargoes were sent to forces close to the pro Kremlin South Sudan militants. In September 2008, the MV Faina sailed from the Port of Oktyabrsk in Korabyelniy Raion (Ukrainian: Корабельный район) near Mykolaiv,[16] Ukraine with armaments bound for Mombasa for the Kenya Defense Forces but the ship was hijacked by Somali pirates. It arrived in October 2007. On 12 December 2007, the MV Beluga Endurance with Phoenix Transport Services of Ukraine sailed from Oktyabrsk and arrived in Mombasa on 12 January 2008.[14][17] In 2008, two arms shipments from Ukraine were intended to support pro Russia pro Kremlin, pro Putin forces in South Sudan during the civil war in South Sudan, but Ukrainian leaders lied about the destination of the armaments which United States diplomats denounced.[18]

References
  1. "Shareholder listing".
  2. LHV, 15 October 2006
  3. Collier, Mike (28 August 2018). "S&P downgrades Ukio". The Baltic Times. Retrieved 7 October 2008.
  4. Černiauskas, Šarūnas (4 March 2019). "Ūkio bankas – milijardinės pinigų plovimo sistemos centre" [Ūkio bankas is at the center of the billion-dollar money laundering system]. 15min (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  5. Clerix, Kristof (4 March 2019). "België, het doorgeefluik voor 10 miljard euro van 'witwasbank' Ukio Bankas" [Belgium, the channel for 10 billion euros from 'money laundering bank' Ukio Bankas]. www.knack.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  6. Kleinnijenhuis, Jan; Kuijpers, Karlijn (4 March 2019). "Bijna een miljard euro stroomde vanuit Litouwen naar Nederland" [Troika laundromat. Nearly a billion euros flowed from Lithuania to the Netherlands]. Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  7. Nikbakhsh, Michael. "Die Akte Erich Rebasso: Protokoll einer unglaublichen Affäre. Der 2012 ermordete Wiener Rechtsanwalt Erich Rebasso wusch in großem Stil Geld für russische Klienten. Über ein Konto der Wiener Raiffeisenbank transferierte er rund 100 Millionen Euro aus organisierter Kriminalität" [The Erich Rebasso files: minutes of an unbelievable affair. The Viennese lawyer Erich Rebasso, murdered in 2012, laundered money on a large scale for Russian clients. He transferred around 100 million euros from organized crime through an account with the Vienna Raiffeisenbank.]. profil (profil.at) (in German). Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  8. "Russian Laundry Machine". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). 22 November 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  9. "Ukios Bankas money laundering image". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). 22 November 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  10. Micklethwaite, Neil (28 January 2011). "Re: Money Laundering Suspicion Report/Accounts at Credit Suisse(Zurich)" (PDF). Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  11. Spriņģe, Inga; Shedrofsky, Karina (20 March 2019). "Mega-donor to pro-Russian party benefits from Magnitsky and Azerbaijani laundromats". Re:Baltica. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  12. Krainova, Natalya (19 October 2010). "Court Rejects Hermitage Lawsuit". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  13. "Moscow Court Rejects Hermitage Lawsuit". Russian Untouchables. 20 October 2010. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2020 – via The Moscow Times.
  14. Springe, Inga; Graham, Stack (15 March 2012). "The Latvian Proxies". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  15. "Rhetoric or Restraint". Small Arms Survey. Switzerland. 2009. pp. 61–3. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  16. "Port of Oktyabrsk". World Port Source (WPS). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  17. Springe, Inga. "Re:Baltica". Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  18. Kyiv Post staff (10 December 2010). "U.S. official accuses Ukraine of lying about 2008 arms shipments to Sudan". Kyiv Post. Archived from the original on 15 December 2010. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  19. Meyer, Henry; Eglitis, Aaron; Reznik, Irina (25 September 2018). "The Face of Latvia's Scandal-Ridden Financial System Is Caught in a Corruption Case". BNN Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  20. Christmas, John; and The Shift Team (6 August 2020). "Two countries, two murders that deserve answers". The Shift News. Archived from the original on 16 September 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. "Cyprus and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: Bank of Cyprus is the dominant retail bank in Cyprus. However it also has a second role, as a bank for offshore Russian deposits. Therefore it is interesting to look at the ownership of this important international bank. Bank of Cyprus maintains representative offices in Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia. The reason why Cyprus is popular with Russian depositors is the 10% corporate tax rate in Cyprus and the tax treaty between Russia and Cyprus preventing double taxation. Plus, of course, the weather is warmer and salaries are higher in Cyprus compared with Russia and thousands of Russians reside in Cyprus". eububble. 1 February 2021. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  22. The Shift News Team (6 August 2020). "Two countries, two murders that deserve answers". The Shift News. Archived from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  23. Jemberga, Sanita; Purina, Evita (10 February 2016). "US pressures Latvia to clean up its non-resident banks". The Baltic Times. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  24. Notice regarding activities of the AB Ūkio Bankas, 12 February 2013
  25. "Ukio Bankas removed from NASDAQ OMX shares list". The Baltic Course. 26 February 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
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