The reputation of the Latvian banking sector is slowly being restored but not so much due to the famous “overhaul”. It is gradually confirmed that the strategic partner in 2018 has disseminated unverified and fictional news about ABLV Bank's involvement in corruption worth billions and the financing of the North Korean weapons program.
The fact that Latvia has not been involved in international terrorism was already established in the 2019 National Terrorism and Proliferation Financing Risk Report - suspicions about Latvia's involvement in North Korean terrorist financing have not been found true. Now, the same has happened with the second fake news spread by the allies - about several billion (!) dollars, which ABLV Bank allegedly invested in bribery of politicians.
This bank was the largest bank owned by domestic bankers, but not so rich as to even theoretically fund corruption with billions, plural. In March 2018, when the bank was voluntarily forced to decide on self-liquidation, the bank's assets amounted to 2.44 billion euros, deposits to 1.63 billion euros and the loan portfolio to 897.6 million euros. The bank's profit in the 1st quarter of 2018 was 2.5 million euros. This is evidenced by the bank's management report. The bank had and still has a lot of money, but not so much as to pay billions (plural) of dollars in bribes for something unnamed.
After shaking the public space with such serious allegations, including bribery of officials on an unprecedented scale in Latvia, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) began to check the facts and initiated criminal proceedings. And this was done at the request of the bank itself, as the reputation of the credit institution was severely damaged. If the facts in the statement issued by the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) were true, closing the bank would not be enough. Both bribe-takers and bribe-givers would have been imprisoned. However, it has now become clear that these allegations are unfounded, as were the ones concerning the financing of North Korea's nuclear terrorism. In three years, the US government has failed to provide evidence for its allegations. Maybe didn't want to. But this does not change the essence of the case - KNAB has not found and has not received evidence of allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the bank. The criminal proceedings have been terminated. Thus, we can conclude that the FinCEN report, which caused the overhaul of the Latvian financial sector, clearly contains fake news.
Here is what the KNAB explains about the reasons for terminating the criminal proceedings:
“The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) informs that on March 26, 2021, in the specific criminal proceedings, the investigator, with the consent of the supervising prosecutor, made a decision to terminate the criminal proceedings. The decision was made on the basis of Section 318, Paragraph one, Clause 6, Section 392, Paragraph two, Section 392.1 and Section 401, Paragraph one, Clause 3 of the Criminal Procedure Law, namely, it has not been possible to prove the person's guilt in committing a criminal offense and it has not been possible to gather additional evidence. One public official was involved in the criminal proceedings."
It would be difficult to understand from the explanation sent by KNAB even what criminal proceedings are talked about here, and also who is that “one involved public official” if the missing information hadn't been leaked through the National News Agency LETA: “The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) has not found evidence of corruption on the part of ABLV Bank's managers, which has been alleged by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), LETA learned. At the same time, KNAB has not managed to find evidence to corroborate ABLV manager's suspicions that former Bank of Latvia governor Ilmārs Rimšēvičs had deliberately slandered the bank.”
However, the decision taken by the KNAB to terminate the process has not yet entered into force. Persons involved in the criminal proceedings, whose rights or legal interests have been violated, have the right to appeal the decision within ten working days from the day of receiving the decision. April is already halfway through, but there was an Easter holiday in the middle and in theory, a complaint can also be sent by post. If either the bank or Rimšēvičs wants to continue the criminal proceedings.
If the appeal does not take place and the KNAB's decision enters into legal force, then next week the Latvian state should start waiting for a solemn apology from the US government for spreading fake news, which has resulted in the collapse of the Latvian financial sector. It is worth recalling that the Latvian banking sector was forced to practically completely abandon servicing customers in third countries, which was previously a priority promoted by government decisions. And the largest national commercial bank ABLV Bank is being liquidated. This is already an irreversible process and was triggered by the following document distributed on February 13, 2018: “FinCEN Names ABLV Bank of Latvia an Institution of Primary Money Laundering Concern and Proposes Section 311 Special Measure.”
The Latvian translation of the statement, in turn, can be found on the website of the Financial and Capital Market Commission: "FinCEN has found that the Bank has managed money laundering schemes, obstructed the implementation of regulatory enactments and carried out transactions related to North Korea."
In the unofficial translation, the FCMC has turned the corruption billions into millions, but this does not change the substance of the matter. Devastating allegations, but even more devastating is the fact that these allegations have not been confirmed in three years. Neither corruption, nor the financing of North Korea, nor, for the time being, the participation of bankers in global money laundering schemes. It is becoming clear that the allies have spread fake news about Latvia.
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