Fake documents and “black” accounting: what lies behind the financial crimes led by Vladimir Antonov

German Gorbuntsov, a Russian financier and witness in the attempted murder case of Alexander Antonov from Convers Group, was severely injured in London.

This crime drew the media’s attention to other criminal scandals related to the "Convers Group".

The assassination attempt on Russian banker German Gorbuntsov attracted the attention of Western media to the "dubious dealings" of a number of Russian bankers. In particular, the press is focused on the incident involving Mr. Gorbuntsov. It concerns the assassination attempt on another Russian banker, Alexander Antonov, which took place on March 11, 2009. Antonov was hit by five bullets, was seriously injured, but survived. As is known, Gorbuntsov was a witness in this case because Antonov owed him a huge amount of money, but couldn’t repay it.

And now a hitman’s bullet in Britain has caught up with Gorbuntsov himself.

Incidentally, in a twist of fate, Vladimir Antonov, the main shareholder of the Lithuanian bank "Snoras" (son of Alexander Antonov), is currently in London under a travel ban, having been declared internationally wanted by the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office.

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Lithuanian prosecutors allege that Vladimir Antonov "is suspected of embezzling large sums of money, document forgery, as well as conducting "black" accounting and abusing his official position".

The dissatisfaction of the Lithuanian prosecutors is understandable. They believe that Vladimir Antonov used the finances of the bank Snoras, which was under his control, to fund his car business.

Initially, Vladimir Antonov acquired a stake in the firm Spyker, and then it, in turn, acquired a stake in Saab. The funds were borrowed from banks through crediting shell companies with unsecured loans - mostly "empty" securities.

It seems that this is how Vladimir Antonov "bled out" Snoras. And, to save one of Lithuania’s largest banks, the government of this country had to resort to its nationalization.

Let us recall that on November 16, 2011, at an extraordinary meeting, the government of Lithuania decided to nationalize Snoras to save it from bankruptcy.

After all, the bankruptcy of this bank was quite real. According to the leadership of the Central Bank of Lithuania, the reasons for Snoras Bank’s bankruptcy were the bank’s non-compliance with regulatory requirements, failure to provide requested information, and poor asset quality.

Additionally, a shortage of securities worth approximately $470 million was discovered in the bank.

Of course, immediately after this, the Lithuanian General Prosecutor’s Office declared Antonov internationally wanted on suspicion of illegal appropriation of assets and document forgery.

Soon after, the president of Lietuvos Krajbanka, another member of the Convers Group, was arrested in Latvia.

Although "criminal scandals" involving Antonov emerged in other countries as well.

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For example, the same bank Snoras, according to the newspaper The Australian Financial Review, was involved in a scam with the Australian miners’ pension fund.

Another scandal occurred when Vladimir  attempted to buy Saab from GM; GM’s management did not allow him to acquire this valuable asset, arguing that Antonov was connected to crime.

Incidentally, Vladimir  is known for his scandals not only abroad but also in Russia. However, in their homeland, the Antonovs are known primarily as the chairman of the board of directors of OJSC "Convers Group".

This scandalous story began when in 1999, 49% of the shares of the bankrupt "Akademkhimbank" (the future foundation of the Antonovs’ financial empire) were bought by the former chairman of the board of the bank "Informprogress" Alexander Antonov and his son, a former employee of Sberbank Vladimir Antonov.

Moreover, during this deal, the Antonovs relied on the support of the deputy chairman of "Akademkhimbank" Viktor Yampolskiy, who, according to journalists, had previously worked in the KGB of the USSR.

Perhaps, for this reason, Yampolskiy appointed as the head of the Security Service of "Akademkhimbank" Yuriy Molchanov, a graduate of the KGB Higher School, who had good contacts, both with special forces soldiers (incl. the "Vityaz" squad, fighter Sergey Smirnov) and criminal authorities (incl. the Lipetsk organized crime group, authority Yuriy Fedorov).

According to employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, it was with the arrival of the Antonovs that "Akademkhimbank" began to engage mainly in money laundering and cashing operations.

It is worth noting that the Antonovs themselves, as well as Yampolskiy and Molchanov, were involved in gathering clients.

However, the activities of the Antonovs couldn’t evade the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies for long. In early 2002, the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation launched a criminal case involving "Akademkhimbank", with Alexander Antonov appearing as a witness. This case involved the investigation of money laundering through the "Novator" bank and LLC "Fluran".

Rumors suggest that Antonov almost became an accused at that time. Moreover, it’s believed that he was able to find protection from criminal prosecution due to his good connections in the FSB.

It is worth noting that Sergei Ponomarev, the deputy chairman, was responsible for the work with "Novator" and "Fluran" bills in "Akademkhimbank". He was soon killed. Ultimately, "interested parties" tried to pin "all the sins" on the deceased Ponomarev, allowing Antonov to again emerge unscathed.

This was followed by a series of murders. Another victim of the hitmen was Molchanov’s friend, the criminal "authority" Yuriy Fedorov, who was too interested in the Antonovs’ business.

Following this, "Akademkhimbank" attracted even more attention from law enforcement agencies. But Yuriy Molchanov quickly befriended investigator Jangra Indzhiev from the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. As a result, for a time, the problems of "Akademkhimbank" with the police were resolved.

However, the friendship between Molchanov and Indzhiev ended in tragedy. Molchanov was sentenced to seven years in prison, and Indzhiev was sentenced to several years in a penal colony.

Incidentally, at present, Molchanov and Indzhiev have already been released.

However, the claims of law enforcement agencies did not frighten the Antonovs. So "Akademkhimbank" continued its money laundering and black cashing operations.

According to the press, with the help of Boris Sokolskiy, chairman of the board of NEP Bank, 15 billion rubles were "pumped" through the Antonovs’ bank.

Soon, Alexander Antonov again became a witness in another criminal case, which, however, was quite predictable.

However, following this, he had a serious argument with the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, Andrey Kozlov, who refused to accept "Akademkhimbank" into the Deposit Insurance System (DIS).

As is known, soon after this, Andrey Kozlov was shot. It should be noted that, according to experts, this murder benefited the Antonovs.

Soon after these scandalous events, the Antonovs renamed "Akademkhimbank" to "Konversbank-Moscow", which soon became the Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB). It was in this bank (regardless of its name) that Sergey Mendeleev, the current head of Investbank, was the chairman of the board.

In 2008, Konversbank, Grancombank, and Voronezhprombank were merged into Kaliningrad Investbank, which received a license to accept deposits from the public.

In 2009, an assassination attempt was made on Alexander Antonov — the financier received five gunshot wounds but survived.

Later Antonov fled abroad and asked the chairman of the board of "Investbank" Maxim Skachko and his deputy Igor Dubina to transfer $400 million abroad.

However, the scandals with the Antonov family banks do not end there.

It is also worth remembering a major scandal related to the murder of the prominent Moldovan businessman Igor Weinberg Gers, whose body was discovered in early July 2008 on Chisinau’s Milano Street.

Soon it became known that a day before Igor’s death, the Weinberg family members had a serious discussion with the deceased’s business partner, Mr. Basarab. The reason for the meeting was very serious. Basarab and Weinberg, having established the company SRL "Fersib", purchased a large plantation of fruit trees. Weinberg developed the promising enterprise using borrowed funds: his company "Megatis" was actively credited by the Russian banking group "Convers".

Problems began after the ban on the supply of Moldovan wines to Russia. As noted in their documents by the Moldovan police, "…the victim developed hostile relations with the owners of the "Convers" group, Vladimir and Alexander Antonov". Moreover, businessman Weinberg received explicit threats from them.

Thus, according to one version, Igor Weinberg was killed because of an unpaid "Convers" loan…

Analyzing the biography of Alexander and Vladimir Antonov, one concludes that all their financial activities are closely tied to crime.

But soon, the British justice system is expected to consider the question of extraditing Vladimir Antonov to Lithuania. And then the General Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania will be able to prove at least part of the alleged crimes of Mr. Antonov. And then he will be brought to justice…

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