In the early 1990’s, the Soviet Union gave the first financial license (in the whole USSR) to Valery Kargin and Viktor Krasovitsky (Parex Bank) and the second financial license (in the whole USSR) to Valery Belokon (Baltic International Bank). Kargin and Krasovitsky are not openly known to have been KGB but probably were. Belokon is openly known to have been KGB.

Belokon’s Baltic International Bank provided boutique service to Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Lukashenko, and the Bakiyev family of Kyrgyzstan for years and he invited all of them for VIP visits to Latvia.

Belokon has been a top supporter for the Latvian political party called ‘New Unity’ or ‘Jauna Vienotiba’ since inception (the party has gone through several name changes) which means he is top sponsor for European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins for many years. Somehow, while this has been going on, Dombrovskis and Karins have fooled the Western governments and media that they are opposed to the Kremlin and to money laundering generally.

An interesting detail not to miss is that Josef Cofer Black, former Head of Counter-Terrorism at the CIA, was recruited to Baltic International Bank by Washington lobbyist Sally Painter (Blue Star Strategies and Atlantic Council). Painter, who is not registered as a lobbyist for Russia and therefore is acting illegally, has been exposed many times. She was lobbyist for Dmytro Firtash who controlled the gas pipelines from Russia through Ukraine to Europe for many years on behalf of the Kremlin. She was lobbyist for Parex Bank of Latvia which was identified by the Spanish Court as top money-launderer for Putin’s Tambovskaya Mafia. She was lobbyist for ABLV Bank of Latvia which looted the government of Ukraine and banking system of Moldova on behalf of the Kremlin. She was lobbyist for the Latvian government which is a puppet government run by the Kremlin. And, she put Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma.

We suspect the Latvian authorities probably tipped-off Belokon before closing Baltic International Bank since it is ridiculous for them to claim they only just now learned that he is a money launderer.

Regarding OCCRP, we commend them for the investigations they have done however are still wondering why they block out certain specific stories. For example they refuse to ever mention that the EBRD and Latvia used fraud to cover-up the whistleblowing of John Christmas when the assets of Parex were embezzled thus helping Latvia to falsely blame the disappearance of those assets on the United States and Sweden. That fraud, which can be proven in minutes with evidence from Eurostat, still continues now in 2023 however was rolled over from a fraud with Parex Bank into a fraud with Citadele Bank.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/17199-latvia-shutters-baltic-international-bank-for-not-preventing-money-laundering

Latvia Shutters Baltic International Bank for Not Preventing Money Laundering