Appeals court resumes Snoras case with Antonov questioning

Lithuania’s Court of Appeal on Monday resumed hearings in the case concerning the embezzlement of assets from the bankrupt Snoras bank, with former bank head Vladimir Antonov’s questioning set to continue, LRT reported.

Antonov was brought to Lithuania in May after a French court finally rejected his appeal against detention under a European Arrest Warrant and upheld Lithuania’s extradition request. He had been detained in France last year, in the city of Baden.

At Monday’s hearing, the presiding judge, Aušra Bielskė, said the court had received Criminal Police Bureau documents on Antonov’s extradition. The total cost exceeded 5,000 euros, and a prosecutor has asked the court to order Antonov to repay the amount.

In July, the Court of Appeal granted Antonov’s request to begin serving his prison sentence before the verdict becomes final. The verdict will take effect once the appeals court issues its decision.

The court began hearing the case on its merits in late June. Antonov then pleaded guilty to all the crimes for which he was convicted by the court of first instance, including the misappropriation of more than 500 million euros in bank assets and the embezzlement of assets of significant value.

In autumn 2024, the Vilnius Regional Court sentenced Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas, another former Snoras shareholder and executive, to more than 10 years in prison. The convictions were issued in absentia.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, 105 million euros was confiscated from the two men jointly for the benefit of the state. They were convicted of misappropriating more than 509 million euros in bank assets, embezzlement of high-value assets, fraudulent bankruptcy and legalising property obtained through crime. They were also convicted of fraudulent accounting, abuse of office for personal or other material gain, forging documents related to the accounting of bank-owned securities in foreign banks and using forged documents.