The nominal nominal deputy Babakov

In the "Panama archive" there was a Latvian trace, very closely intertwined with the Russian

The deputy and former vice-speaker of the State Duma , Alexander Babakov , entered in the first, “Crimean” sanctions list of the European Union in April 2014, tried to hide his commercial presence in the West with the help of Latvian guides-Vilis Dambins and Valts Vigants. This is one of the many commercial secrets of the Russian elite that became the property of publicity after the publication of the so -called "Panama archive" . The both trail of scandals in the Latvian business and politics, among other things, marked and the participation of the Russian defense department, stretches.

Vilisa Dambinsha and Valts Vigants in the Panama Archive was discovered by the correspondent of Novaya Gazeta Olesya Shmagun :

- Olesya, why did you pay attention to Vilis Dambins and Valts Vigants?

- I was engaged in the case related to offshore companies in Mr. Babakov, who is a deputy of the State Duma. And we found a company that belonged to him until 2011 and which he later transferred to his daughter. Exploring the documents of this company, I saw that in 2010 its nominal director becomes a legal entity called VD Nominees, and on behalf of this company these two citizens of Latvia act. I asked my colleagues from Latvia to “break through” VD Nominees, because I suggested that it was registered in Latvia and provides services of nominal directors and owners. But in the Latvian register we did not find anything with this name.

Apparently, Mr. Babakov has been working with these people for a long time

There are many nominal directors (“nominal”, as they are called), and most often they do not interest us. Why did I consider it necessary to mention them? Apparently, Mr. Babakov has been cooperating with these people for a long time. There is another large asset, which the media is attributed to Babakov year after year: this is VS Energy. Its main assets are located in Ukraine, it controls a lot of energy companies and a rather expensive real estate in Kyiv. In Ukraine, new legislation is currently in force, which obliges in legal registers to disclose the outcome owners.

- The beneficiaries?

- This is small difficulties. The company "Armed Forces of Yenerji", which is registered in Ukraine, has a maternal company in the Netherlands, which, in turn, has a maternal company somewhere else. And among the beneficiaries of the Ukrainian company, we see, in fact, Vilis Dambins and Valts Vigants. But when we see the same people acting in other Babakov companies, we have questions. In this company, VS Energy, they are likely to go as nominal nominal. We talked with Mr. Babakov, and he said that Latvia really knew these citizens, but to the question whether they represented his interests in the AED International, which we write about, he replied: "They are not and were never directors."

- On the Internet you can find the mention of Valts Vigants as the director of several companies related to Mr. Babakov ...

- Yes, although Mr. Babakov so evasively denied that they represented his interests, we see that there is a connection: over and over again, in different places he uses them as nominal nominal. Perhaps we will try to unearth this story because I saw that they also represent the interests of the close business partner of Babakov Evgeny Giner. It is connected with CSKA, the media call him the second owner of VS Energy. In the companies that belong to Eugene Ginera, these people also appear, ”said Olesya Shmagun, correspondent for Novaya Gazeta.

At the end of 1991, Western capital rushed to Latvia, who had just gained independence again. The American company with Taiwanese capital Taroco Enterprises, together with municipal and state structures and private individuals, established Latvijas Industriālā Banka (Lainbanka) in Riga , which two young friends were delivered - Vilisa Dambinsha and Valts Vigants (they were 21 years old). The bank, as was customary at that time, accepted deposits at 55 percent per annum, participated in the distribution of the first European loans, known under the acronym G-24.

The scandal with detention caused reputation losses, there were problems with liquidity

In 1995, the bank signed an agreement on servicing monthly payments to Russian military pensioners with the Russian Ministry of Defense, which allocated $ 3 million for these purposes. A year before, young bankers decided to improve financial indicators and issued several fictitious loans, and then tried to repay the “debts”. The debtors filed a lawsuit, hired a criminal case, fighters of the anti -terrorist unit burst into the bank, and Vilis Dambinsh and Valts Vigants were detained. The case was then closed the lack of actual damage, but the scandal with detention caused reputation losses, liquidity problems arose, and already in August 1995, pensioners could not pay off.

In 1998, Vilis Dambinsh went to Moscow to offer a "tankor", which was more than two -thirds from the value of bank assets, a control package "with a discount". Then the default struck, and problems with Russian debt obligations were added to this. In 1999, the bank was declared insolvent and became part of another financial institution, and the Debt of the Russian Ministry of Defense was never returned.

In 1998, Vilis Dambinsh went to Moscow to offer a "tankor", which was more than two -thirds from the value of banking assets, a control package "with a discount"

At what point did the Latvian bankers have contacted the Russian "defense industry"? The earliest period of Vilis Dambins in the era of the absence of the Internet, perhaps, reflects the publication of Komsomolskaya Pravda from 1999, which claims that the former vice-president of Vnedorgbank Mikhail Sarafanov, entering the board of directors of the Crossinvestbank battery, included a Latvian colleague in him. Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that former functionaries of the Ministry of Defense were presented on the presidium of this bank, among others. Dambins allegedly represented the bank’s interests of the famous St. Petersburg company "Russian Video" related to the export of gold and precious stones.

Its president was Mikhail Mirilashvili, nicknamed Misha Kutaisky, who controlled the local representative office of AK Almazi of Russia - Sakha (Alrosa). The company was led by the former KGB colonel Dmitry Rozhdestvensky, who in August 1993 received permission from DE Beers for export operations with diamonds. Allegedly, it was then that the meeting of Sarafanov, Mirilashvili, Rozhdestvensky and Dambins took place. In a telephone conversation with a radio correspondent, Vilis Dambinsh did not confirm, but did not refute his participation in the crossinvestbank and the Russian Video, saying that he did not intend to comment on his professional activities.

The journalist of the newspaper Latvijas Neatkarīga Avīze, the journalist of the newspaper Liberty, told about the next period of the activities of Dambins and Vigants.

- Three guys studied in Jurmala in the same school and even in the same class: Valts Vigants, Vilis Dambins and Dzintars Peltzbergs. Another of their classmate was Linda Mournie, who later became the Minister of Defense. They started with Lainbanka: Dambins was president, Vigants Vice President, chairman of the board of directors-Arnold Lax. In Lainbanka, financial problems began, and he ceased to exist. Arnold Lax was considered an experienced banker, he went to the Riga United Baltic Bank (RABB), which was a pocket bank of the SWH group.

In the early 90s, it was the strongest economic group in Latvia, it participated in the so-called early privatization. She privatized, for example, strategic factories such as Dambis, factories that worked for the military-industrial complex in Soviet times, many military bases, they probably had the most powerful transit business through Ventspils in the country. They had a very strong guard: they did not pay a racketeering, local bandits were afraid of them. And they earned the first money programming in Germany. They collaborated with politicians and more than a million dollars were invested in the Latvian Path party in the election campaign, in the early 90s in Latvia it was giant money.

We collaborated with politicians and more than a million dollars were invested in the campaign of the Latvian Path party

RABB was allowed to privatize Krājbanka - the former "Sberkassa". From the first steps, this privatization was one continuous scandal. There was a very colorful composition of shareholders, including three Ventspils transit companies. Krajbanka included the Cyprus offshore Macasyng Holding. Reading Russian newspapers and magazines, we saw that Macasyng was connected with Russian business, moreover, it was not simple: it turned out that he was simultaneously shareholder of the Russian army sports club and one not very large Bank of Latvia.

At first we took it just as an interesting fact. Then Arnold Lax became a member of the Sejm (from the Latvian first party. -RS) and for some reason chose not a financial or economic committee, but headed the defense committee. According to our concepts, this did not climb into any gate, with such a business partner! Moreover, in the declaration, he owed Macasyng a million dollars - a company related to the Russian Ministry of Defense! Of course, in fact, this was not a loan: in this way, Macasyng paid with Lax for shares. At first, Lax denied this connection, and then, when we were in court, he recognized all these facts.

- Why did he sue you?

“He accused us of denigrating him.” He did not like about 30 of our publications, he quoted them with whole paragraphs. We were sued in all three instances, up to the Senate of the Supreme Court. Our newspaper had two publishers, one of them won the process in the Senate, and Lax had to pay him costs, the other lost, and we had to apply to the European Court of Human Rights, but we did not do this because this publisher went bankrupt.

-Wilis Dambins and Valts Vigants met you in some context?

- Dambins positioned himself as the representative of Macasyng Holding and was in the board of Krājbanka, Waltts Vigants was the deputy chairman of the Bank Council. As for Babakov, when the last 25 percent of Krajbanka privatized, his surname was mentioned. In Latvia, he appeared as a Russian representative of Macasyng in negotiations with the Ventspils group. This auction was held in 2003. Macasyng did not speak at it, one applicant came, the offshore company Doxa Fund. We think that this was another macasyng hypostasis, since everything went to get control of the bank. According to the Russian press, Macasyng shareholders were Roman Abramovich and Alexander Mamut . This was written by the magazine "Russian Focus" in 2003. They wrote there that it was Vilis Dambinsh that represented Doxa Fund. We assume that many influential Latvian politicians could also be its shareholders, including representatives of the New Time Party of the then Prime Minister Ainar Repshe: for example, the former mayor of Riga Avivar Aksonok, ”said Latvian journalist Uldis Draablets .

According to the Russian press, the shareholders of Macasyng were Roman Abramovich and Alexander Mamut

The list of Latvian shareholders of Krajbanka, who laid their shares in Macasyng, suspiciously intersected with the list of donors of the Latvian first party (LPP), which was part of the coalition from 2002 to 2008. Latvian journalists suggested that her election campaign was funded from Russia. As a result of the shareholders wars in 2005, Krājbanka, who experienced financial difficulties, was sold to the owner of the Conversion Group Vladimir Antonov. Vilis Dambins entered the new council and was withdrawn from it in 2006.

And the name of Valts Vigants and the names of the Hafra Limited and Alkahn Power Company who are led by him at different times until 2012 are connected by an no longer existing Latvian Bank, Ventspilssi transit companies, Ukrainian hotels Oreanda and Premier Palace and various energy assets. In March of this year , Ukrainian journalists who were looking for true owners of communal energy companies went to the trace of Latvian nominal nominal. In March 2015, their final owners Yevgeny Giner, Alexander Babakov, Mikhail Voevodin and Mikhail Spector give way to five other persons, including Valts Vigants and Vilis Dambins. The complex architecture of offshores converges at the Riga company VS Energy Latvia, entered into the register of enterprises in December 2014.

Reference:

Alexander Babakov (b. 1953) was first elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation on the list of the Rodina party in 2003. Was the co -chair of her faction. Since 2006 - in the party "Fair Russia". In 2007, he was again elected to the State Duma, became one of the nine deputies of its then chairman Boris Gryzlov. In 2011, he left the SR, saying that "the party marginalized, went into a tough opposition to the country's leadership." He joined the " All -Russian Popular Front ". In 2011, he was again elected to the State Duma, already on the list of "United Russia". Special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for interaction with organizations of compatriots abroad.