Situation at Snoras worse than suspected, bank to be liquidated

Of course Snoras, a Lithuanian bank taken over by the Lithuanian government on 16 November, has been in the news a lot recently.  I first wrote about this situation here: Fifth largest bank in Lithuania seized by government.  It turns out that the situation at the bank is much worse than the government first suspected.

In this article (in Lithuanian), Vitas Vasiliauskas, the head of the Lithuanian national bank (Lietuvos Bankas), says that it was thought that Snoras had the flu but it turns out that it has cancer.  Fewer assets and more irregularities were found than the government had been expecting.

In this article (in Lithuanian), Vasiliauskas states that the Lithuanian government suspects that the heads of Snoras were trying to increase the authorised capital of Snoras by using customers' deposits.

This article (in Lithuanian) reports that both Vladimir Antonov (who controlled 68.1% of Snoras) and his father were employees of Snoras, as well as both sitting on the Snoras board of supervisors.  Vladimir Antonov was hired as an administrative consultant and was making LTL 58,500 (EUR 16,685 / USD 22,110) a month after taxes for this "work".  Antonov's father was making LTL 14,700 (EUR 4,256 / USD 5,677) a month after taxes.  (This doesn't include the money he was making for being on the board of supervisors.)  I wonder whether he has even stepped foot in Lithuania.  The article also says that the members of the board of supervisors were making an average of LTL 51,500 per month (EUR 14,911 / USD 19,887).  Raimondas Baranauskas, president and owner of 25.31% of Snoras made LTL 58,500 (EUR 16,938 / USD 22,590) per month after taxes.  That doesn't include the amount he got for sitting on the board of directors of the company.  The members of the board of directors were pulling in an average of LTL 40,100 (EUR 11,611 / USD 15,485) a month for sitting on the board.  To put this in perspective, the average Lithuanian makes somewhere around LTL 2,000 a month (EUR 579 / USD 774).

Latvijas Krajbanka, a bank in Latvia controlled by Snoras, has also been seized by the Latvian government because of financial irregularities.  This article (in Lithuanian) states that the bank's current administrator, Janis Brazovskis, discovered what had happened to LAT 100 million (EUR 143 million / USD 190.8 million) that disappeared from the bank.  Brazovskis said that the money had been used for two purposes: to raise the authorized capital of the bank and to finance a personal project of Vladimir Antonov--his plans to purchase the automaker Saab.  Mortgage bonds were used to move the money out of the country.  Brazovskis stated that this was "a crime, indeed several crimes".

In this article (in Lithuanian), Edward Lucas, who is the International Editor of The Economist, says that the activities of Snoras should have been carefully looked into much earlier and that the former Lithuanian government and Lietuvos Bankas share the blame for their lack of action.  According to Lucas, it had been known for many years that the bank was run by suspicious people and was engaging in suspicious activities.  (I wonder how many Lithuanian officials profited from their silence?)  He also states that the Lithuanian authorities acted improperly by not earlier sharing information with the Latvian authorities concerning their suspicions about Snoras.

On a good note, at least Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas have been arrested.  They were seized in the UK and are currently out on bail.

After looking over the situation at Snoras, the Lithuania government has decided to liquidate it.  Earlier there was talk of trying to preserve the bank, but the situation appeared hopeless.  In this article, Andrius Kubilius, the prime minister of Lithuania, stated that the scope of financial crimes at Snoras had never before been encountered by the government.  He added that Snoras could hardly be called a real bank; rather it was a massive financial scheme reminiscent of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.  Still, few actual details of the fraud that took place at the bank have been released by the government.

In a related (but minor) note, a Mercedes-Benz driven by Sigita Baranauskiene, the wife of Raimondas Baranauskas, was seized by the government as she tried to drive to Riga, Latvia.  As this article reports, her reaction to this was to tell a journalist that she wanted to "like that Norwegian Breivik [who in a murderous bombing and shooting rampage killed almost 80 persons this past summer] pick up a machine gun and kill" the people involved in the downfall of her husband's evil empire.  Nice woman.  I like her humility after it became common knowledge that she and her husband have been living the good life on the deposits of the people putting money in their bank.  Yeah, just gotta love it.

Problems with education reform in Lithuania

An article (in Lithuanian) that recently appeared on the Lithuanian news site Delfi confirms some of the problems I touched on in my 24 October post, "Life in Lithuania II," concerning education reform in Lithuania.  In this recent article, Prof. Rimantas Mikalauskas talks about several of the factors that are preventing true change in the Lithuanian system of higher education and states that the main problem is the low quality of research and education.

His opinion is that some changes, such as making universities autonomous, have failed.  After gaining autonomy from state control, universities made changes to their study programs, administrative methods, and financial systems.  Intense competition for funding even began taking place.  But education and research quality "still remains low."  And serious problems have cropped up.  First, as Mikalauskas puts it, "the administration of every university abuses" this autonomy by adopting decisions that are important only to the administration.  And second, occupying a high-ranking administrative position is being equated to being qualified to hold this post.  Loyalty to the person and the "stupid ideas" that are emanating from that person, even when those ideas are "destroying academic values," is widespread.  This lackeyism is another thing I discuss in my "Life in Lithuania II" post.

The professor also touches on students not being required to study very hard to get a diploma (e.g. some students are able to have a full-time job while at the same time studying "full time") and the "relatively high level of corruption" in Lithuanian higher education. "Giving presents is widely practiced in the study process when taking exams and performing various academic qualification requirements."  (Yet another thing I hinted at in my earlier post.)  "The tolerance that universities have for corruption means that losing [the reputation of the university] has no effect on the financial standing of the university.  And there is one conclusion you can reach from that--that the level of knowledge that university graduates receive is not a priority."

Among other problems, Prof. Mikalauskas of course also mentions the problem of low salaries for professors.  The article is rather long and detailed, and I unfortunately don't have the time to translate everything now.  Besides pointing out the shortcomings of the system, Mikalauskas makes some suggestions about what could be done.  The professor ends the article by saying that solving the many problems in higher education in Lithuania will require the joint effort of the government, the private sector, and society.  I thought the article made some very good points.

Fifth largest bank in Lithuania seized by government

Snoras, the fifth largest bank in Lithuania, was seized by the government on 16 November.  An article in English covering this event can be found here: Lithuania Seeks Missing Assets in Takeover of Fifth-Biggest Bank.  This nationalization doesn't surprise me.  I had always figured that it was more or less common knowledge that the bank was controlled by the Russian mafia, and, well, would you trust your money to Russian criminals?  I of course can't produce any proof of this assertion concerning the ownership of the bank, which is simply me putting 2 and 2 together.  I remember about six years ago or so reading about Snoras being controlled by a small Russian bank.  Well, that was one piece of evidence.  About three years ago I read about Snoras being investigated for money laundering.  There's another.  And now, according to this article (in Lithuanian), the Office of the Prosecutor General in Lithuania is again investigating the bank in connection with money laundering.

It's quite a coincidence that at this moment all the high ranking executives in the company happen to be out of the country.  I suspect that some will decide that it's safer to stay in Russia or some country that doesn't have any extradition treaty with Lithuania.  The chairman of the board and president of the bank was Raimondas Baranauskas.  (According to this article [in Lithuanian], he owns 25.3% of Snoras.)  I don't really know anything about Baranauskas except that he drives a Bentley with a vanity plate that reads "Snoras I" and owns one of the most expensive apartments in the old town of Vilnius.  When the apartment building was being renovated a few years ago, the architect had to adjust the size of the automobile elevator/lift just to make sure his big ol' Bentley would fit.  In this article (in Lithuanian), Baranauskas, interviewed by a journalist from the newspaper Lietuvos Rytas, calls the government takeover of his bank "theft" and says that if he doesn't put up a fight, other Lithuanian companies will be in danger of being destroyed by the government.  He also claims that the government continually derailed recent plans of Snoras to raise its liquidity.  (I have no idea whether this is true, but I suspect that if it is, then that is the result of the bank being unable to satisfy certain requirements that have to do with the legitimacy of its money, ownership, or operations.)  On 15 November, an anonymous article appeared in Lietuvos Rytas stating that the president of Lithuania was planning to nationalize all Lithuanian banks.  This news has of course been denounced by the government and the prime minister said that the paper may have broken laws by publishing such "lies".  It should be mentioned that through a subsidiary Snoras controls over one-third of Lietuvos Rytas.

It's not yet clear who's being (or going to be) charged with what, but I would like to provide a list of the people involved with this bank.  Time will tell who the bad guys were and who the good guys were (though this being Lithuania, things may never really be cleared up), but too often the criminals remain faceless and nameless, and I want to have this record at least for myself.  Here are the (former) members of the board of directors.

Raimondas Baranauskas
	Position Bank SNORAS, Chairman of the Board, President of the bank, Co-Owner JSC bank "Finasta", Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Bank Latvijas Krājbanka, Chairman of the Supervisory Board Has been working in Bank SNORAS since 1993 Activity in the banking sector 1994 - now: Bank SNORAS, Chairman of the Board, President 1993 - 1994: Bank SNORAS, Deputy Chairman of the Board
Naglis Stancikas
	Position Bank SNORAS, Deputy Chairman of the Board, First Vice President JSC "Finasta Holding", Chairman of the Board JSC "SNORAS Media", Chairman of the Board JSC "SNORAS Investment Management", Chairman of the Board JSC bank "Finasta", Member of the Supervisory Board Bank "Latvijas Krājbanka", Member of the Supervisory Board Has been working in Bank SNORAS since 1994 Activity in the banking sector 2006 - now: Bank SNORAS, First Vice President, Deputy Head of Administration 2008 - 2010: Bank SNORAS, Director of Investment Business Division 2004 - 2008: Bank SNORAS, Director of Finance Management Division 2001 - 2004: Bank SNORAS, Director of Treasury and Investment Division 1999 - 2001: Bank SNORAS, Director of Planning Department 1994 - 1996: Bank SNORAS, Head of Crediting Unit
Romasis Vaitekūnas
	Position Bank SNORAS, Deputy Chairman of the Board, Chief Compliance Officer Has been working in Bank SNORAS since 1998  Activity in the banking sector 2008 - now: Bank SNORAS, Chief Compliance Officer 2006 - 2008: Bank SNORAS, Director of Security and Prevention Division 1998 - 2006: Bank SNORAS, Director of Administration Division 1998 - 1999: Bank SNORAS, Director of Security Department
Modestas Keliauskas
	Position Bank SNORAS, Deputy Chairman of the Board, Director of Corporate Business Division JSC "SNORAS Media", Member of the Board JSC "SNORAS Investment Management", Member of the Board Has been working in Bank SNORAS since 2004  Activity in the banking sector 2008 - now: Bank SNORAS, Director of Corporate Business Division 2004 - 2008: Bank SNORAS, Director of Crediting Division 2004 - 2004: Bank SNORAS, adviser to the president 1998 - 2004: Bank Nord/LB Lietuva, member of the Board, Manager of Retail Banking Division, Director of Crediting Department 1993 - 1998: Lietuvos taupomasis bankas, Director of Crediting Department
Aušra Ižičkienė
	Position Bank SNORAS, Member of the Board, Director of Legal Department JSC "SNORAS Media", Member of the Board Has been working in Bank SNORAS since 1997  Activity in the banking sector 2004 - now: Bank SNORAS, Director of Legal Department 2000 - 2004: Bank SNORAS, Director of Legal Department 1999 - 2000: Bank SNORAS, Head of General Unit of Legal Department 1997 - 1999: Bank SNORAS, lawyer of Legal Unit
Gitanas Kancerevyčius
	Position Bank SNORAS, Member of the Board, Director of Risk Management Division Has been working in Bank SNORAS since 2001 Activity in the banking sector 2008 - now: Bank SNORAS,  Director of Risk Management Division 2004 - 2008: Bank SNORAS, Director of Risk Management Department 2003 - 2004: Bank SNORAS, Director of Financial Risk Department 2002 - 2003: Bank SNORAS, Head of Risk Management Unit of Treasury and Investment Division 2001 - 2002: Bank SNORAS, analyst of Treasury and Investment Division
Jurgita Bliumin
	Position Bank SNORAS, Member of the Board, Chief Financial Officer Has been working in Bank SNORAS since 2006 Activity in the banking sector 2010 - now: Bank SNORAS, Chief Financial Officer 2008 - 2010: Bank SNORAS, Director of Finance Division, Chief Accountant 2006 - 2008: Bank SNORAS, Deputy Director of Accounting Division

   

I suppose that if you're making enough money, you don't really worry about working with criminals.

And here are the (former, I assume) members of the board of supervisors.

 

Vladimir Antonov
	Position Chairman of AB Bank SNORAS Supervisory Board, main shareholder of the bank Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the International Financial Group "Konvers Group" Chairman of the Supervisory Board of JSC "Finasta Holding" Member of the Supervisory Board of JSC bank "Finasta" Member of the Supervisory Board of the bank "Latvijas Krājbanka" Member of the Board of Directors of the bank "Banco Trasatlantico S.A." Chairman of the Supervisory Board since 30.03.2004 Activity in the banking sector: Work experience in the banking sphere is over 13 years. During this period, V. Antonov worked in the largest bank of Russia "Sberbank", he held responsible managing positions in the banks "Konversbank", "Akademhimbank".
Alexander Antonov
	Position Member of AB Bank SNORAS Supervisory Board President of the International Financial Group "Konvers Group", member of the Supervisory Board Member of the Supervisory Board of JSC bank "Finasta" Member of the Supervisory Board of the bank "Latvijas Krājbanka"  Member of the Supervisory Board since 15.03.2006 Activity in the banking sector: Started activity in the banking sector in 2002: managed the bank "Konversbank Moskva", worked in the Supervisory Board of the bank "Konversbank" and in the Board of Directors of the International Financial Group "Konvers Group" where he later held the managing positions and works until now.
Oleg Sukhorukov
	Position Member of AB Bank SNORAS Supervisory Board Vice President of  the International Financial Group "Konvers Group" Member of the Supervisory Board of the bank "Latvijas Krājbanka"  Member of the Supervisory Board since 15.03.2006 Activity in the banking sector: The total work experience in the banking sector - over 10 years. Worked in the banks "Eksportno-Importnyj bank", "Rosbank", "Moskovskij delovoj bank" where he held responsible positions in the structural subdivisions of finance management and analysis.
Maxim Anchipolovsky

	Position Member of AB Bank SNORAS Supervisory Board Director of Volter Vols International Member of the Supervisory Board since 01.09.2008 Activity in the financial sector: In 2002 he began a professional career in the bank "Nationalnyi kosmicheskiy bank", later he performed legal work in the company "Kredit Moskva" and in the bank "Konversbank"; he also was the head of International Legal Division of Legal Department in the international finacial group "Konvers Group".
Adam Habib

	Position Member of AB Bank SNORAS Supervisory Board The senior partner and the CEO of the company "Jubilee Financial Products" which manages the alternative investment fund "JFP Emerging Europe Momentum Fund" Member of the Supervisory Board since 05.05.2011 Activity in the financial sector: Has experience in the financial industry since 1993. Over 10 worked  in international bank Credit Suisse. In 2008 together with partners set the company „Jubilee Financial Products".

Well, well.  The board of supervisors certainly includes a lot of Russian names.  I wonder what that means.  Make your own conclusions.  If you will, place bets on who will end up in prison or never return to Lithuania.  If I were a betting man, I'd bet that not one of the last five people will ever step foot in Lithuania again and by doing that will escape all legal consequences.  

Vladimir Antonov, who according to this article (in Lithuanian) owns 68.1% of Snoras, even has his own page on Wikipedia.  You know, I don't care what your situation is, but if you have amassed 300 million dollars just 10 years after graduation from university, you didn't make your money legally.  Read through the article and it should be clear what kind of person he is.  On his record of withholding information from supervisory bodies:  “These failures are not an isolated instance but are examples of an ongoing pattern of behaviour by institutions controlled by Mr Antonov" (the UK Financial Services Authority).