LawlessLatvia has featured posts about the unprosecuted looting of the largest institutions in Latvia including Parex Bank, Latvenergo, Riga City, and Liepajas Metalurgs. Now we will turn to another favorite target of the Oligarchs: AirBaltic.
Millions of euros disappear from AirBaltic every year, often paid to fake companies that are supposedly providing services to AirBaltic. Evidence indicates that many of these transactions were the result of dealings between Latvian Oligarch Ainars Slesers and German citizen Berthold Flick. However we may never learn the full details since the Latvian parliament voted that Slesers has immunity from law.
Now, Latvia claims to be privatizing part of AirBaltic to prominent German investor Ralf Girmes, but we can’t know the truth about that either. Since Latvia’s privatization of Parex Bank to the EBRD in 2009 was later discovered to be fraudulent (the transaction was designed to create a fake value for Parex which was actually worthless, and the transaction was reversed 5 years later with a secret guarantee), it is possible this new “sale” will also be fake.
Now, Latvian taxpayers are pouring 132 mln euros more into the black hole which is AirBaltic. Will Brussels and Washington ever wake up and realize that the Latvian government is controlled by criminals? Ignoring this reality only perpetuates the problem.
