In 2008, when the public discovered that $1 bln disappeared from Parex Bank of Latvia, the government fought long and hard to cover-up for the Oligarchs. The government chased the first whistleblower into exile and started a “show trial” prosecution of the second whistleblower, at the request of offshore bank AB.LV. Many accounts from Parex moved to AB.LV when Latvia and the EBRD bailed out Parex in what was later revealed to be an Enron-style cover-up featuring a secretly reversible share transfer designed to help Latvia temporarily overstate income and understate debt while actually increasing the total bailout expense to taxpayers. In 2015, when the public discovered that $1 bln disappeared from three banks in Moldova, with the cash moving through AB.LV, Latvijas Pasta Banka, and Privatbank (Latvia), something different happened. Moldova ordered an investigation (Latvia never investigated Parex) and the Speaker of the Parliament published the investigation on his blog (in Latvia the Prime Minister lied to voters that “Sweden” caused the crash). Moldova is attempting to recoup the lost money, and the responsible Oligarch is under house arrest and expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. Contrast this to Latvia where the government made no attempt to recoup the money and the Oligarchs are free enjoying life in their Jurmala palaces. Maybe Latvia can learn something from Moldova?
investigative report from Kroll:
Kroll_Project Tenor_Candu_02.04.15
