The criminal case of Lithuania’s collapsed Ūkio Bankas has been sent to court. It involves charges against twelve people, including the bank's owner Vladimir Romanov who is currently hiding in Russia.
The other defendants in the case are the chairpersons and members of the bank’s supervisory council, management board and loan committee.
Read more: Investigators conclude 6-year Ūkio Bankas embezzlement probe
The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) reported on Monday that charges had been brought in relation to a large-scale embezzlement of Ūkio Bankas' assets, abuse of office, laundering of criminal assets and other offences.
The pre-trial investigation was launched in 2013 after the central Bank of Lithuania reported suspicious transactions.
Evidence collected by the FNTT suggests that the accused have abused their office to give out loans to companies they controlled via intermediaries.
In total, the allegedly embezzled totaled some 41.6 million euros, including 33 million euros laundered via the accounts of 80 companies and individuals to purchase real estate in the United Kingdom, to increase the authorised share capital of a Belarusian-registered company, etc.
Some of the funds were transferred back to the companies controlled by the suspects.
The investigation showed that 14.6 million euros in loans obtained from Ūkio Bankas had been spent on financing football clubs in Scotland and Belarus, a basketball club in Lithuania, as well as acquisition of real estate in Russia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
According to Prosecutor Darius Alinskas, who has drafted the charging document, the proceedings will not be quick or easy. Nonetheless, he believes that the interests of the state will be defended.
The criminal case consists of 369 volumes of documents.
Romanov, who held a 65-percent stake in Ūkio Bankas, fled to Russia in May 2013. He was detained in Moscow on an international arrest warrant in April 2015, but was soon released. Russia informed Lithuania in August of that year that it had granted Romanov asylum.
In June 2018, a Vilnius court gave the green light for putting Romanov on trial in absentia.
Romanov owned the Scottish Premier League football club Hearts and the Lithuanian Basketball League club Žalgiris, and had control of the Lithuanian club FBK Kaunas. He had also owned the Belarusian Premier League club FC Partizan Minsk before it was sold in March 2012.
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