Antonov defends Snoras spending in appeal court

Lithuania’s Court of Appeal on Monday continued hearing the case over the embezzlement of assets from the bankrupt Snoras bank, with former bank head Vladimir Antonov continuing to give evidence, 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 the French city of Baden last year.

At Monday’s hearing, the panel’s chair, Judge Aušra Bielskė, said the court had received documents from the Criminal Police Bureau on Antonov’s extradition. The total cost exceeded 5,000 euros, and a prosecutor has asked the court to order Antonov to reimburse the expenses.

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

The court began examining the case on its merits at the end of June. Antonov then admitted guilt to all the offences for which he had been convicted by the first-instance court.

Antonov says his finances were poor during crisis

On Monday, judges asked Antonov why he had used Snoras funds rather than his personal money to buy so-called bad loans while seeking to stabilise the bank during the financial crisis.

In June, Antonov said one way to stabilise the bank was to build reserves from net profits, but that this had not been possible because the value of securities had fallen during the crisis.

He said on Monday that he had not bought shares with personal funds because his financial position was poor during the global crisis of 2008 and 2009.

“My financial position was poor. In 2009, my financial situation was really bad. On paper, a person looks wealthy, but in reality they are not. At the time, as the newspapers wrote, I certainly could not be called a billionaire. De jure, yes, but in reality, no,” Antonov said during questioning.

He said the crisis had affected both the Conversgroup group, which included Snoras bank, and him personally. According to Antonov, the group was much broader than Snoras and included many banks. He said money was used in 2009 and early 2010 to restore the value of assets so they could be sold, realised or pledged.

According to the case file, Antonov and former Snoras executive Raimondas Baranauskas, who is hiding in Russia, received the funds for which they were convicted by pledging securities. The money was then transferred to their personal accounts.

Antonov repeated that the funds had been used to buy bad loans.

“Snoras bank’s money was spent to increase the bank’s capital and increase the reserve for bad loans,” he said.

When asked whether the entire amount involved in the asset embezzlement case had been spent on acquiring those loans, Antonov confirmed that it had.

Antonov said he had personally held 30 million to 35 million US dollars. He said the money had not come from any of the group’s banks, but had been set aside for a rainy day and was publicly known.

Speaking about purchases of subordinated shares and loans that had been issued, Antonov said the events had taken place 15 years ago and that he did not remember the exact amount paid for the shares or the total value of the loans.