November 5 2019
The story seems drawn from a movie. In a sauna in Riga, three people relax, enjoying the hot steam. It was not three people at all, but the Governor of the Central Bank of Latvia, Ilmars Rimsevics (54), along with two of the shareholders of a troubled commercial bank. In exchange for the promise of a bribe of 500,000 euros, Rimsevics agrees to help the bank of the two. Unfortunately for the three, Latvian prosecutors knew about the meeting and recorded everything. On Monday, Rimsevics appeared before a court for bribery, being the first trial in which a member of the Board of Governors of the European Central Bank (ECB) is charged.
