2024-05-04 08:37:02
In July last year, the VDD started an investigation in connection with LG’s decision to pay dividends to all shareholders, including the company “Itera Latvija“, which is subject to European Union (EU) sanctions.
According to the information at the disposal of VDD, “Itera Latvija” is under the effective control of Igor Sečina. Since February 28, 2022, Sechin, the head of the Russian oil company “Rosneft” and a long-time ally of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, has been included in the EU sanctions list for actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.
In order to limit the access of financial funds to Sechin, sanctions are also applied to the company “Itera Latvija” under his actual control.
During the inspection, the VDD found out that LG has paid dividends to its shareholders on August 23, 2023, except for the sanctioned company “Itera Latvija”. Meanwhile, LG’s largest shareholder is Russia’s Gazprom.
According to the information at the disposal of the VDD, the decision taken at the shareholders’ meeting has been implemented to the extent permitted by the applicable laws and sanctions regime. Since the payment of dividends to “Itera Latvija” in a legal way is not possible, the profit share intended for this company has been recorded in the balance sheet of “Latvijas Gāze” as unpaid dividends, freezing these funds.
Taking into account the above, VDD “Latvijas gaze” has not found any violation or attempted violation of international sanctions in the activities with dividends, the service says in a statement.
VDD reminds that EU citizens, institutions, companies and organizations are prohibited from directly or indirectly making available financial funds or economic resources to persons or companies subject to EU sanctions. Actions, as a result of which financial funds or economic resources come into the possession of a natural or legal person subject to sanctions, are subject to criminal liability.
The service also informed that it constantly cooperates with banks and other financial institutions in identifying cases and attempts to violate international sanctions. VDD reminds that banks and other financial institutions, in accordance with the International and National Sanctions Law of the Republic of Latvia, are obliged to inform VDD immediately, but no later than the next working day, about possible cases or attempts of violating sanctions and, as a result, funds frozen in customer accounts.
It has already been reported that the Court of Economic Affairs, according to lawyer Mārtiņš Kvēps, is evaluating whether LG legally paid dividends in the amount of several million euros to the Russian company “Gazprom” and SIA “Itera Latvija”, which is actually controlled by another Russian energy company “Rosneft”, Latvian Television reported.
Kvėps brought the claim against the company because he believes that the dividends were paid out in accordance with “public order and good morals”, and this can be assessed as a violation of the sanctions set by the European Union. Kvėps is convinced that “Itera Latvija”, not disclosing its true ownership structure for a long time, has no right to participate in shareholders’ meetings, accordingly, there was no quorum for their decisions.
LETA already wrote that the net turnover of the LG group last year was 159.819 million euros, which is 4.4 times less than in 2022, when natural gas prices experienced a huge increase, and the company also suffered a loss of 56.911 million euros compared to the profit a year earlier. In 2022, the turnover of “Latvijas gas” was 702.604 million euros, and the profit – 40.8 million euros.
LG’s largest shareholders are Russia’s Gazprom (34%), Rietumu banka (28.97%), the German company Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH (18.26%) and SIA Itera Latvija (16%).
2024-05-04 08:37:02