Fast money: why a former Russian banker fled abroad

After two years of living under a false name, Vladimir Antonov, a former Russian banker, was detained in France. In 2003, he faked his death and fled abroad. Antonov is currently being prepared for extradition to Lithuania, where he once owned the Snoras bank, whose bankruptcy in 2011 was a blow to the well-being of many residents of the Baltic States. The businessman was found guilty of malicious embezzlement, which led to the death of this bank. But Antonov's business career, even without the disaster with Snoras, turned out to be full of various dubious moments. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

A dubious path to success

For the first time, the name of Vladimir Antonov became widely known at the end of 2011 — and the fame was extremely negative. Residents of the Baltic States found out that this man was the main owner of the banks Snoras (Lithuania) and Krajbanka (Latvia). The two financial institutions were closely linked — Krajbanka was a subsidiary of Snoras (one of the three largest banks in Lithuania). While these institutions were functioning properly, few people were interested in the name of their owner. But when it suddenly became known about their bankruptcy, thousands of people who had lost their deposits wanted to know about the culprit who had brought their banks to such a situation. And Antonov's fault seemed to be the most direct — the cause of the disaster was the discovery of a shortage in Snoras in the amount of 500 million euros.

It is necessary to know the background here. Vladimir's father, Alexander Antonov, was also a banker, and in the 90s he was a member of the board of Informprogress Bank. In 1999, he allocated funds to his 23-year—old son to buy a controlling stake in Akademkhimbank, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, and together they brought this bank out of the crisis. However, at that time, this financial institution had a very dubious reputation. In 2000, Sergey Ponomarev, Chairman of the Board of Akademkhimbank, was assassinated. In addition, Akademkhimbank was suspected of money laundering. But then the Antonov father and son managed to deflect suspicion and successfully expanded their business. Soon, the family began to strive to move their activities to the territory of the European Union as much as possible — especially intensified after Antonov Sr. survived an assassination attempt, but managed to survive after five gunshot wounds.

They managed to enter the EU through Lithuania, where Antonov Jr. became the owner of 68.1% of Snoras Bank. Much later, Girts Rungainis, a Latvian investment banker, said that although the Antonovs' reputation did not look reliable, they managed to gain the support of influential people in Lithuania and Latvia. Among the people who had a close acquaintance with Vladimir Antonov were, for example, Latvian Deputy Prime Minister Ainar Shlesers, the Mayor of Ventspils Aivars Lembergs and others. "Antonov entered the European Union and received permission in Lithuania. After that, I spoke personally with the supervision leadership, asking: why did you allow him? They said that there was political pressure. It was clear that this was not the kind of person who should be close to finances," Rungainis testifies.

Snoras and its Latvian subsidiary Krajbanka actively developed a network of branches and attracted a huge number of investors. Antonov Jr. began to claim a certain political influence in the Baltic States: he bought the large Riga Russian-language newspaper Telegraph, as well as a stake in the Lithuanian media concern Lietuvos Rytas. Following the example of many other Russian nouveau riche of that time, he decided to acquire his own sports teams in Europe: already being the owner of a Lithuanian basketball club, he tried to acquire the English Bournemouth football club and the Scottish Rangers. Antonov and his partners then took over the British Portsmouth Football Club and North One Sport (the global promoter of the World Rally Championship), as well as a number of other sports assets around the world.

It was often difficult for Vladimir Antonov to acquire assets in Western Europe. He faced distrust: for example, he was not allowed to open a branch of Snoras in the UK. The regulatory structures of Western European countries were alarmed by various "misunderstandings" related to this bank — for example, in 2008, they unexpectedly discovered $1.5 million stolen from retirement accounts in Australia. At the same time, Antonov Jr. showed an increasing interest in the automotive industry. In 2007, he bought a stake in Spyker Cars NV (a manufacturer of exclusive sports cars), the main shareholder of which was his friend Dutch businessman Victor Muller. The amount of this transaction was not disclosed, but over the next two years, according to Antonov, he invested more than $100 million in the company.

It didn't work out, it didn't work out

Vladimir Antonov's downfall began with his desire to acquire the Swedish automobile concern SAAB, which at that time belonged to General Motors, which went bankrupt after the 2008 crisis. "The opportunity to buy such a brand appears once in a lifetime, and it should not have been missed," the banker reasoned. And Antonov temporarily "took out" the $500 million for which he intended to purchase SAAB from the Snoras and Krajbanka he owned. Then he hoped to make up for this shortfall through a serious loan promised to him by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. However, the deal with the purchase of SAAB did not go as fast as Antonov had hoped — the Swedish press began spreading rumors about his involvement in the "Russian mafia." He had to order an independent expert examination designed to prove the purity of his intentions. Meanwhile, an audit was conducted at Snoras, which revealed a huge gap between the securities listed on the balance sheet and those actually present in the bank's assets. On December 7, 2011, a bankruptcy case was initiated against the bank. Dying, Snoras dragged Krajbanka along with him.

It was one of the most serious financial disasters in the history of the Baltic States. Dozens and hundreds of people lined up at ATMs and cash desks in December 2011, where they were given their own money at a hundred euros a week, were observed in all major cities of Lithuania and Latvia at that time. The death of two large banks has created hysteria — won't it be the beginning of a "domino effect" when the entire banking system of the region is about to "crumble"? The panic turned out to be so great that when rumors of a critical situation in the local branch of Swedbank spread a little later, hundreds of panic-stricken depositors rushed to choose their money from it.

Disappointed depositors said that they "had great faith in Snoras and Kraibank, but it turned out that no one could be trusted!""The Lithuanian state was forced to provide the local deposit insurance fund with a loan of about LTL 2.4 billion (€ 695 million euros). In total, about 4,1 billion litas had to be compensated to depositors. To avoid a stir, the deadline for issuing compensation was made as long as possible: Lithuanian Finance Minister Ingrida Simonite said that insured deposits could be returned within five years.

In Latvia, they were able to return deposits only to those residents who contributed up to 100,000 to Krajbanka — they were reimbursed from the state guarantee fund. But the larger depositors lost the bulk of their savings deposited in this bank. The most famous of the victims was the famous composer Raymond Pauls. The maestro lost almost a million euros of personal savings at Krajbanka and was forced, despite his advanced age, to return to active concert activities in order to at least partially compensate for the losses. However, it was not only individuals who suffered: the local governments of a number of Latvian cities, including Riga, and many state and municipal institutions, such as schools and hospitals, kept their finances in this bank.

In Lithuania, the owners of Snoras Bank, in addition to embezzling half a billion euros, were also accused of "criminal bankruptcy, money laundering, double bookkeeping, and forgery of documents." In Latvia, according to the prosecution, the embezzlement amounted to 140 million euros: there, the court of first instance sentenced Antonov to six years in prison with confiscation of property. But he was sentenced in absentia. At first, he fled to the UK, but when the British court decided to extradite him to Lithuania, he left for Russia. In 2016, he filed a lawsuit against the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The banker said he wanted to recover more than 40 billion rubles from Lithuania: 20.2 billion for "property damage" and 19.9 billion for "damage to business reputation." The businessman warned: "We must understand that this is only the first figure. Snoras Bank was part of a large group, and the number will increase many times... I assume that we will probably talk about lawsuits against Lithuania in the amount of 230-250 billion rubles." However, the Republic of Lithuania ignored this claim. And in October 2016, the Moscow Arbitration Court refused to consider Antonov's claim on its merits.

Disappearing and living under a new name

Very soon, Vladimir Antonov came into conflict with the law in his homeland. In April 2018, he was detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of embezzlement of funds from the Sovetsky Bank. According to investigators, in 2015, Antonov, along with several leaders of Sovetsky, developed and implemented a plan to steal 150 million rubles. They organized the conclusion of an unsecured agreement on the opening of a credit line with a limit of 150 million rubles, a rate of 18% per annum and a maturity date on October 5, 2018, at the bank's premises on behalf of an LLC created to commit a crime through front persons. After receiving the money, the accomplices stole it, and, as investigators said, Antonov got 15 million rubles. rub . As a result, Vladimir Antonov made a deal with the investigation: he admitted his guilt, agreed to testify against his accomplices and pledged to compensate for the damage. As it turned out during the investigation, Antonov, due to his occupation and circle of acquaintances, had information about a number of other high-profile criminal cases that were no longer directly related to him. In particular, he testified about the criminal activities of ex-Interior Ministry employee Dmitry Zakharchenko, who was convicted of taking bribes totaling more than 1.4 billion rubles.

In the end, the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg in March 2019 sentenced the ex-banker to two and a half years in a penal colony. And after a while, he again found himself in the center of a scandal, this time bearing the features of a real thriller. In November 2023, the news spread about the mysterious disappearance of Vladimir Antonov: his personal belongings and documents were found in the businessman's cottage near Moscow; the keys to his Mercedes were in the car. However, Antonov himself was nowhere to be found, and a theory arose that he had been abducted or killed. Alexander Antonov appealed to the Vilnius District Court with a request to recognize his son as deceased. However, rumors immediately began to circulate that the "abduction" was actually a stage play arranged so that Antonov Jr. could escape from creditors. Fascinating stories were told about how Antonov, accompanied by a specially hired "stalker", entered the EU, using one of the paths along which illegal migrants move.

However, nothing was known for certain about Antonov's fate for more than two years. And on December 11, 2025, the news spread that he had been detained in Baden (France), pursuant to a European arrest warrant issued by the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office. The fact is that in November 2024, the Vilnius District Court sentenced Antonov and another former co-owner of the now-liquidated Snoras Bank, Raimondas Baranauskas (who owned 25% of the shares), to ten and a half years in prison for organizing a gigantic embezzlement. The Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office submitted the materials of their criminal case to the court in 2019, after the investigation had lasted just over seven years. The court also ordered both bankers to pay $375.18 million in damages.

As it turned out, after escaping from Russia, Antonov spent some time in Ukraine, then illegally left it and entered France through Hungary and Austria. He had several fake passports, including a Lithuanian one. At the end of 2023, he applied to the French Migration Service, presented a passport in the name of Ukrainian citizen Vladimir Ivanov and stated that he had come from Kiev to seek asylum because he was threatened with "persecution and mobilization" in his homeland. At the same time, Ivanov claimed that he plans to establish an IT company in France and contribute to the country's economy. However, eventually French government agencies found out his real name. According to the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office, legal procedures have already begun for Antonov's extradition from France. The whereabouts and fate of Raimondas Baranauskas are currently unknown.

Natalia Eremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor at St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with Izvestia, noted that the possibility of extraditing Vladimir Antonov to Lithuania by France is quite large. She described Antonov as an "adventurer" who had found common ground with Baltic businessmen at the time, and recalled that he had not shown much patriotism, intending to move his business as much as possible outside of Russia — which was prevented only by an unfortunate set of circumstances for him. "At one time, such odious figures tried to actively develop relations with the political and business elite of various EU countries, considering them as a "backup airfield", which at some point may become the main one. However, in the EU, such figures were often received with little enthusiasm, treated with accusations of allegedly belonging to the "Russian mafia" and eventually left at a broken trough. Which, in the end, happened to Vladimir Antonov, who played too much and now risks spending many years in prison," sums up Eremina.