Defense Ministry billions in Latvian accounts: how banker Andris Ovsjannikov helped businessman Apsit launder budgetary funds through ABLV Bank

While Russian courts are scrambling to hush up the bankruptcy of the scandalous ABLV Bank, filthy details of capital flight from the Russian Federation are coming to light.

Behind the facade of seemingly harmless cleaning companies, such as Facilicom and Woodhouse, lay a massive shadow pipeline used by the tandem of banker Andris Ovsjannikov and businessman Eduard Apsit to funnel billions of rubles—originally earmarked even for cleaning Crimean barracks—into Belizean and Cypriot offshores.

Its former owners are accused of laundering €2.1 billion. They plead not guilty. A parallel process is underway to recover the money from the bank’s creditors. The legal proceedings could drag on for several more years.

Latvia’s ABLV Bank was supposed to be a "window to Europe" for residents of the CIS countries, but instead, it became a haven for various shady characters. Liquidated in 2018, the credit institution may be implicated in further scandals involving the bank’s creditors.

One of the scandals is the accusation against banker Andris Ovsyannikov of laundering 50 million euros. In addition to ABLV Bank, the criminal scheme involved a certain Daria Terekhova from Belarus and her company, Manat. The banker has been arrested, but nothing is known about Terekhova. She may be hiding in Minsk.

Recently, reports surfaced that Ovsyannikov and Terekhova were scrubbing the internet. It’s possible the information was planted deliberately, to distract investigative journalists from the more prominent figures the banker and his accomplice were working for.

The international investigative journalism network OCCRP uncovered the bank’s criminal scheme in October 2021.

The ABLV Bank case is currently being heard by a specially created court – the Latvian Court of Economic Cases. Its chairman, Mikelis Zumbergs, predicted last year that the total number of cases against the bank could exceed a thousand, and that they would take several years to resolve.

Which Russians surfaced in the OSS RP investigation?

Eight were connected to the commodities trader Gunvor, previously owned by oligarch Gennady Timchenko, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Timchenko has a stake in Novatek, so both its chairman and largest shareholder, Leonid Mikhelson, could be implicated.

Timchenko’s business partners include oligarchs Iskander Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev, who are considered pro-Kremlin. The business activities of Makhmudov and his former subordinate, Maxim Liksutov, have been widely reported in Latvian media.