There is ongoing news that several people were involved in a money-laundering scheme through the ABLV Bank and the State Police Economic Crimes Unit (ENAP) has commenced 50 criminal procedures about the scheme. The report showed that some employees and authorities of the bank were responsible for aiding money laundering; the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is therefore set to evaluate the operations of the bank for any instance of systematically laundering money from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Russia, after which the document of the procedures would start. For situations where individuals are believed to be responsible for money laundering, the procedures are sent to the country where the person under suspicion is detained. Prior to that, the decision is made whether to return the illegal funds to the legitimate owners or confiscate the funds on behalf of the state. In cases where bank employees are involved, a settlement is reached in Latvia.
Previous reports detailing investigations on ABLV Bank operations conducted by the law enforcement agencies and Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) indicated a suspicion that at least 50 million Euros have been laundered by the bank between 2015 and 2018 after it collapsed from U.S Treasury allegations of involvement in money laundering of large amount. Latvia’s regulator, the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FKTK) in 2018 also announced its decision to allow ABLV to undergo self-liquidation.
