Prosecutor Darius Stankevičius asked the Vilnius District Court for this sentence during his closing speeches.
The court promises to announce the verdict in early September.
In the “Snoro” case, the prosecutor suggested that V. Antonov and R. Baranauskas be given a final combined sentence – 10 years and 6 months of imprisonment each.
Both defendants never appeared in the courtroom, since 2011. they are wanted by the police, on November 16, 2011, the nationalized “Snor” was filed for bankruptcy in December.
Since the former managers of “Snoro” are hiding abroad, therefore Lithuania has no rights against them – the law provides for such a possibility if a person is hiding and avoids the court.
Both defendants were represented in the courtroom by attorneys appointed by the state.
In this pre-trial investigation, the bankruptcy administrator of bank “Snoras” is recognized as a civil plaintiff and in 2019. at the end of the year, when the case was submitted for judicial examination, the bankruptcy administrator had claimed almost 0.5 billion. civil lawsuit worth EUR.
Both defendants are now being asked to pay only $105 million. EUR – the claim decreased by 395 million. euros.
This claim in the criminal case was reduced because the sums were awarded civilly in other cases, recovery proceedings were in progress, etc.
“Our civil action is on file and is being processed along with the case. During that entire investigation, investigation, as you understand, the civil lawsuit changed, modified, money appeared, it was changing all the time. Before the court hearing, we filed an updated civil lawsuit with all the latest information. There are a lot of questions related to foreign banks, which also claim the same property,” lawyer Oleg Šibkov, the representative of Snoro’s bankruptcy administrator in court, told Elta.
There will be no statute of limitations for those who are in hiding
The pre-trial investigation, which the General Prosecutor’s Office started in 2011. at the end, was carried out by the officers of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service (hereinafter – FNTT).
The investigation, which was organized and controlled by the prosecutors of the Department of Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation of the General Prosecutor’s Office, was started after receiving and evaluating the information of the Bank of Lithuania about the violations identified in “Snoro” bank and possible crimes against the country’s financial system, property, and civil service.
ELTA reminds that V. Antonov and R. Baranauskas have been charged in absentia with embezzlement of high-value “Snoro” assets, waste of high-value assets, criminal bankruptcy, legalization of criminally acquired assets, fraudulent management of bank accounting, abuse of official position for obtaining property or other personal benefits, due to falsification of documents related to accounting of bank-owned securities in foreign banks and use of forged documents.
“During the pre-trial investigation, the data collected by the General Prosecutor’s Office and FNTT allow us to reasonably state that since 2008 autumn to 2011 summer, 35 high-value (from 5 million to 74 million euros) operations of transferring money and securities of “Snoro” to personal accounts in banks operating in the Swiss Confederation were carried out. It is also believed that since 2009 until 2011 2 potentially illegal transactions of high value were carried out with Snoro’s assets, resulting in the waste of assets belonging to the bank and a loss of 14.5 million. EUR loss”, announced the prosecutor’s office when the case was handed over to the court.
Russia had provided information to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania that R. Baranauskas had been granted refugee status.
“The question is, has he not acquired the citizenship of another state”, considered lawyer, Doctor of Law Edgaras Dereškevičius.
As previously announced, V. Antonov is a Russian citizen.
Russia has repeatedly refused to cooperate with Lithuania in other criminal cases, claiming that it does not extradite its citizens.
According to the lawyer, if, under the circumstances, both former managers of “Snor” would come to Lithuania or be extradited according to international agreements, they would have the right to apply to the court and request an appeal process, a review of the criminal case in their presence, because their case was examined in their absence.
“If they are convicted now because of this, the sentence will come into effect after a certain time, there will be no possibility of applying the statute of limitations, because it will be treated that people hid from justice and the statute of limitations for the execution of the sentence will stop. If he returns to Lithuania, he will have to serve those sentences,” the lawyer told Elta.
2024-08-18 02:04:30