Romanov in fraudulent dealings shock (from 2009)

[NeilT]

Interesting article here on Romanov's Modus Operandi.

http://flarenetwork.org/blog/2009/09/01/republika-srpska-loans-of-interest/

Sounds like the kind of decent chap you would want running your football club.

[borders.cabbage]

"Court documents, lawsuits and investment records in four countries reveal that Romanov had been accused in a 2003 US federal civil lawsuit of using offshore banks and phony companies to profit."



Dummy companies, dodgy offshore accounts, failure to pay taxes, linked to transnational organized crime.

Only a matter of time:******:

[Jack]

I hope HMRC are reading this ....


“He is not here to pay taxes,” said Marčeta who left the company three years ago and still defends his former boss. “He is not even a citizen of this country. He couldn’t care less for this country. He cares about how much profit he will extract and re-route to other deals. That’s his priority; that’s how his power is growing.”

[Hibercelona]

It's how all big businesses operate.

Move along now... :rolleyes:

[PaulSmith]

Interesting article here on Romanov's Modus Operandi.

http://flarenetwork.org/blog/2009/09/01/republika-srpska-loans-of-interest/

Sounds like the kind of decent chap you would want running your football club.

Has someone finally cracked the Romanov sham, looks like the noose is tightening

[Woody1985]

It's how all big businesses operate.

Move along now... :rolleyes:

I've not read the article but every big business in the world dodges taxes.

IIRC Barclays were found to be paying something like a billion pound a year less in tax than they should have been due to very highly paid tax experts who were routing the money round lots of different countries.

[Peevemor]

I've not read the article but every big business in the world dodges taxes.

IIRC Barclays were found to be paying something like a billion pound a year less in tax than they should have been due to very highly paid tax experts who were routing the money round lots of different countries.

I only skimmed the article (I'll have a proper look when I'm not meant to be working), but the issue seems to be that Romanov's companies are getting millions in development loans then immediately sending the funds off to secret accounts in the Virgin Islands and such like.

[sauzee1966]

Probably to Nade's burger King, Dominoes Online, Mac D'S and Greaso Burger Accounts!

keep the boy fed for A FEW WEEKS

:faf::thumbsup:



I only skimmed the article (I'll have a proper look when I'm not meant to be working), but the issue seems to be that Romanov's companies are getting millions in development loans then immediately sending the funds off to secret accounts in the Virgin Islands and such like.

[Phil D. Rolls]

Move along now, nothing to see here.

[Woody1985]

I only skimmed the article (I'll have a proper look when I'm not meant to be working), but the issue seems to be that Romanov's companies are getting millions in development loans then immediately sending the funds off to secret accounts in the Virgin Islands and such like.

TBH if some corrupt government officials (only read about half of it) wanted to give me 5million KM (whatever they are, how much is 5m of them in £?) I'd probably take it and shove it away in a tax haven.

[The_Todd]

Come off it, Vlad is a fine upstanding member of the Edinburgh community.

For all his comedy work he should be knighted.

[Mikey]

the issue seems to be that Romanov's companies are getting millions in TRANSFER FEES AND REGISTRATION FEES then immediately sending the funds off to secret accounts in the Virgin Islands and such like.


I've fixed that for you :wink:

[crewetollhibee]

Typical Hobo-sympathising Flarenetwork journalists stirring it !! :devil:

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Come off it, Vlad is a fine upstanding member of the Edinburgh community.

For all his comedy work he should be knighted.

What he should have a sword taken to both shoulders (deathchess style)?

[Irish_Steve]

Hobonomics - jog on

[Hibs7]

As always suspected he is a peoffesional con man, and he is taking the Jambo's to the cleaners. you can only juggle so many lies and cons before they come tumbling down around your ears, the sooner the better for me. :thumbsup:

[Heraghty's]

UKB: AB Ukio bankas suspends cooperation with international rating agency “Moody‘s Investors Service”

AB Ukio bankas has taken decision to suspend cooperation with internationalrating agency “Moody‘s Investors Service” due to the cost efficiency policy. Marius Arlauskas,Head of Financial Institutions and Fund Raising Department



So they can't afford to let a credit ratings agency look at their books . . .:bye:

[Phil D. Rolls]

UKB: AB Ukio bankas suspends cooperation with international rating agency “Moody‘s Investors Service”

AB Ukio bankas has taken decision to suspend cooperation with internationalrating agency “Moody‘s Investors Service” due to the cost efficiency policy. Marius Arlauskas,Head of Financial Institutions and Fund Raising Department



So they can't afford to let a credit ratings agency look at their books . . .:bye:

Just another organisation that doesn't understand Yamenomics, hardly worth giving them the money in those circumstances.

[Heraghty's]

Could have had something to do with Moody's preparing to update its previous analysis of Ukio.
Here is how The Times (of London) reported that assessment in April 2009:

The ability of Vladimir Romanov, the owner of Heart of Midlothian, to finance the football club was questioned yesterday after a ratings agency downgraded the creditworthiness of the Lithuanian bank in which he is the biggest shareholder.
Moody’s reduced Ukio Bankas’s credit ratings to near junk status, following a similar move by Standard and Poor’s last month. The agency was also concerned that the bank’s core capital — the money it needs in order to meet any losses on its loans — was “stretched”.
The rating reflects the agency’s fear that Ukio Bankas will suffer severe losses as the global financial crisis deepens, but a spokesman for the bank, based in Vilnius, said yesterday that its work with Hearts, which it sponsors, would be unaffected.
Rumours about the financial security of Hearts have circulated for some time. Last year the players’ wages were twice paid late and there were claims that the Lithuanian-born Mr Romanov might have to sell the club he acquired in 2005.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister and a long-time Hearts supporter, added to the concerns when he told The Times last month that the club was “in unsafe hands”.
“I still believe there is a general problem in football which involves a kind of devil’s bargain. If you get a club sold to a very rich foreign guy — often a Russian oligarch or somebody like that — then I suppose you enter a kind of devil’s bargain, whereby you hope that the guy is rich enough to buy you success,” he said.
“I’m not saying that Romanov is some sort of dreadful person. All I’m saying is that, if we were going to be taken over by a rich guy from the Baltic states, then it’s just a pity he wasn’t a bit richer.”
The rating suggests that Mr Romanov, who has a 32.95 per cent stake in Ukio Bankas, may be about to become poorer. Although the bank made a € 14 million (£12.4 million) profit in 2008, it made a loss in the last three months of last year.
The bank now lies close to the bottom of the credit ratings league. By comparison, British banks, despite their problems, are all in the top half of the league.
The lower a banks’ rating, the more expensive the borrowings that an organisation has to make in order to finance its operations.
Moody’s said that it had reduced the bank’s rating because of “the reported significant decline in Ukio Bankas’s profitability and asset quality and Moody’s expectation of a significant further weakening in asset quality due to the rapidly deteriorating credit conditions in Lithuania”.
The problem for the bank, Lithuania’s fifth biggest, is that the Baltic states are suffering the worst recession in Europe, mainly because property prices are crashing. The Lithuanian Government predicts a 10.5 per cent decline in output in 2009.

:bye:

[Golden Bear]

Could have had something to do with Moody's preparing to update its previous analysis of Ukio.
Here is how The Times (of London) reported that assessment in April 2009:

The ability of Vladimir Romanov, the owner of Heart of Midlothian, to finance the football club was questioned yesterday after a ratings agency downgraded the creditworthiness of the Lithuanian bank in which he is the biggest shareholder.
Moody’s reduced Ukio Bankas’s credit ratings to near junk status, following a similar move by Standard and Poor’s last month. The agency was also concerned that the bank’s core capital — the money it needs in order to meet any losses on its loans — was “stretched”.
The rating reflects the agency’s fear that Ukio Bankas will suffer severe losses as the global financial crisis deepens, but a spokesman for the bank, based in Vilnius, said yesterday that its work with Hearts, which it sponsors, would be unaffected.
Rumours about the financial security of Hearts have circulated for some time. Last year the players’ wages were twice paid late and there were claims that the Lithuanian-born Mr Romanov might have to sell the club he acquired in 2005.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister and a long-time Hearts supporter, added to the concerns when he told The Times last month that the club was “in unsafe hands”.
“I still believe there is a general problem in football which involves a kind of devil’s bargain. If you get a club sold to a very rich foreign guy — often a Russian oligarch or somebody like that — then I suppose you enter a kind of devil’s bargain, whereby you hope that the guy is rich enough to buy you success,” he said.
“I’m not saying that Romanov is some sort of dreadful person. All I’m saying is that, if we were going to be taken over by a rich guy from the Baltic states, then it’s just a pity he wasn’t a bit richer.”
The rating suggests that Mr Romanov, who has a 32.95 per cent stake in Ukio Bankas, may be about to become poorer. Although the bank made a € 14 million (£12.4 million) profit in 2008, it made a loss in the last three months of last year.
The bank now lies close to the bottom of the credit ratings league. By comparison, British banks, despite their problems, are all in the top half of the league.
The lower a banks’ rating, the more expensive the borrowings that an organisation has to make in order to finance its operations.
Moody’s said that it had reduced the bank’s rating because of “the reported significant decline in Ukio Bankas’s profitability and asset quality and Moody’s expectation of a significant further weakening in asset quality due to the rapidly deteriorating credit conditions in Lithuania”.
The problem for the bank, Lithuania’s fifth biggest, is that the Baltic states are suffering the worst recession in Europe, mainly because property prices are crashing. The Lithuanian Government predicts a 10.5 per cent decline in output in 2009.

:bye:

Every cloud has a silver lining. Long live the global financial crisis!


:greengrin

[PaulSmith]

Could have had something to do with Moody's preparing to update its previous analysis of Ukio.
Here is how The Times (of London) reported that assessment in April 2009:

The ability of Vladimir Romanov, the owner of Heart of Midlothian, to finance the football club was questioned yesterday after a ratings agency downgraded the creditworthiness of the Lithuanian bank in which he is the biggest shareholder.
Moody’s reduced Ukio Bankas’s credit ratings to near junk status, following a similar move by Standard and Poor’s last month. The agency was also concerned that the bank’s core capital — the money it needs in order to meet any losses on its loans — was “stretched”.
The rating reflects the agency’s fear that Ukio Bankas will suffer severe losses as the global financial crisis deepens, but a spokesman for the bank, based in Vilnius, said yesterday that its work with Hearts, which it sponsors, would be unaffected.
Rumours about the financial security of Hearts have circulated for some time. Last year the players’ wages were twice paid late and there were claims that the Lithuanian-born Mr Romanov might have to sell the club he acquired in 2005.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister and a long-time Hearts supporter, added to the concerns when he told The Times last month that the club was “in unsafe hands”.
“I still believe there is a general problem in football which involves a kind of devil’s bargain. If you get a club sold to a very rich foreign guy — often a Russian oligarch or somebody like that — then I suppose you enter a kind of devil’s bargain, whereby you hope that the guy is rich enough to buy you success,” he said.
“I’m not saying that Romanov is some sort of dreadful person. All I’m saying is that, if we were going to be taken over by a rich guy from the Baltic states, then it’s just a pity he wasn’t a bit richer.”
The rating suggests that Mr Romanov, who has a 32.95 per cent stake in Ukio Bankas, may be about to become poorer. Although the bank made a € 14 million (£12.4 million) profit in 2008, it made a loss in the last three months of last year.
The bank now lies close to the bottom of the credit ratings league. By comparison, British banks, despite their problems, are all in the top half of the league.
The lower a banks’ rating, the more expensive the borrowings that an organisation has to make in order to finance its operations.
Moody’s said that it had reduced the bank’s rating because of “the reported significant decline in Ukio Bankas’s profitability and asset quality and Moody’s expectation of a significant further weakening in asset quality due to the rapidly deteriorating credit conditions in Lithuania”.
The problem for the bank, Lithuania’s fifth biggest, is that the Baltic states are suffering the worst recession in Europe, mainly because property prices are crashing. The Lithuanian Government predicts a 10.5 per cent decline in output in 2009.

:bye:

I take it you missed their recent downgrading on 28th August 2009

Standard and Poor have downgraded UKIOs credit rating to B long term and C short term as of today (29/08/09).

Exactly 1 year ago where they were BB long term and B short term.

6 month ago they were B+ for long term and B short term

The Standard & Poor's rating scale is as follows, from excellent to poor: AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, C, D. Anything lower than a BBB rating is considered a speculative or junk bond.[3]

Definition of C short term credit rating: currently vulnerable to nonpayment and is dependent upon favorable business, financial and economic conditions for the obligor to meet its financial commitment on the obligation

And more here: http://produkte.erstegroup.com/CorporateClients/en/MarketsAndTrends/NewsAndEvents/Market_news/News_detail/index.phtml?ID_NEWS=116546193

[Golden Bear]

I take it you missed their recent downgrading on 28th August 2009

Standard and Poor have downgraded UKIOs credit rating to B long term and C short term as of today (29/08/09).

Exactly 1 year ago where they were BB long term and B short term.

6 month ago they were B+ for long term and B short term

The Standard & Poor's rating scale is as follows, from excellent to poor: AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, C, D. Anything lower than a BBB rating is considered a speculative or junk bond.[3]

Definition of C short term credit rating: currently vulnerable to nonpayment and is dependent upon favorable business, financial and economic conditions for the obligor to meet its financial commitment on the obligation

And more here: http://produkte.erstegroup.com/Corpo...NEWS=116546193

What's an error 404? - I can't open the link.

[iwasthere1972]

What's an error 404? - I can't open the link.


It's like the Yams - Broke.

[PaulSmith]

What's an error 404? - I can't open the link.

sorted

[Sioux]

Not long to go now then:******:

(Note to self: Calm doon we've been here before and nowt happened)

[down the slope]

I see ukio have suspended cooperation with Moody's as of today, Vlad has spat the dummy oot.
Strange thing is the share took a big hike last week-maybe the Gordon money gave them a lifeline.

[Sergey]

Could have had something to do with Moody's preparing to update its previous analysis of Ukio.
Here is how The Times (of London) reported that assessment in April 2009:

The ability of Vladimir Romanov, the owner of Heart of Midlothian, to finance the football club was questioned yesterday after a ratings agency downgraded the creditworthiness of the Lithuanian bank in which he is the biggest shareholder.
Moody’s reduced Ukio Bankas’s credit ratings to near junk status, following a similar move by Standard and Poor’s last month. The agency was also concerned that the bank’s core capital — the money it needs in order to meet any losses on its loans — was “stretched”.
The rating reflects the agency’s fear that Ukio Bankas will suffer severe losses as the global financial crisis deepens, but a spokesman for the bank, based in Vilnius, said yesterday that its work with Hearts, which it sponsors, would be unaffected.
Rumours about the financial security of Hearts have circulated for some time. Last year the players’ wages were twice paid late and there were claims that the Lithuanian-born Mr Romanov might have to sell the club he acquired in 2005.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister and a long-time Hearts supporter, added to the concerns when he told The Times last month that the club was “in unsafe hands”.
“I still believe there is a general problem in football which involves a kind of devil’s bargain. If you get a club sold to a very rich foreign guy — often a Russian oligarch or somebody like that — then I suppose you enter a kind of devil’s bargain, whereby you hope that the guy is rich enough to buy you success,” he said.
“I’m not saying that Romanov is some sort of dreadful person. All I’m saying is that, if we were going to be taken over by a rich guy from the Baltic states, then it’s just a pity he wasn’t a bit richer.”
The rating suggests that Mr Romanov, who has a 32.95 per cent stake in Ukio Bankas, may be about to become poorer. Although the bank made a € 14 million (£12.4 million) profit in 2008, it made a loss in the last three months of last year.
The bank now lies close to the bottom of the credit ratings league. By comparison, British banks, despite their problems, are all in the top half of the league.
The lower a banks’ rating, the more expensive the borrowings that an organisation has to make in order to finance its operations.
Moody’s said that it had reduced the bank’s rating because of “the reported significant decline in Ukio Bankas’s profitability and asset quality and Moody’s expectation of a significant further weakening in asset quality due to the rapidly deteriorating credit conditions in Lithuania”.
The problem for the bank, Lithuania’s fifth biggest, is that the Baltic states are suffering the worst recession in Europe, mainly because property prices are crashing. The Lithuanian Government predicts a 10.5 per cent decline in output in 2009.

:bye:

Having inadvertently lost all my bookmarks after a recent Firefox changeover, I can't post a supporting link :grr:, however, not mentioned in The Times article, is the sale by Ukio of a substantial piece of Moscow real estate that helped prop them up during the later part of last year.

Their balance sheet would have looked a lot different without that boost in liquidity, hence the continual downgrade by Moody's and S&P.

[greenginger]

The property sale was reported as 25/7/2008 and is still on the Ukio Bankas web page history section.

The sale price was 82 million euros including a profit of 7.8 million euros.

I think it will take a few more sales to prop up the figures this year.Trouble is there are no buyers and there's nothing left to sell.

Of course there always the 7 acre development site in Gorgie !!!!

[Heraghty's]

Thanks, Paul, I saw the Standard & Poor's downgrade.
But how bad must have been the Moody's verdict . . .


As for the share price, it soared among heavy (insider?) trading last week but is now sinking like a stone. :thumbsup:

:bye:

[PaulSmith]

Thanks, Paul, I saw the Standard & Poor's downgrade.
But how bad must have been the Moody's verdict . . .


As for the share price, it soared among heavy (insider?) trading last week but is now sinking like a stone. :thumbsup:

:bye:

Junk status stock, totally worthless company at this moment.

[Heraghty's]

Junk status stock, totally worthless company at this moment.

Just like Birac and Balkan Investment Bank, then. Oh, and Hearts. :agree:

For an "investment group", UBIG don't half back some losers.
In fact, have they invested in anything that's been a success?

[Sergey]

Just like Birac and Balkan Investment Bank, then. Oh, and Hearts. :agree:

For an "investment group", UBIG don't half back some losers.
In fact, have they invested in anything that's been a success?

Monmore. Hare running!

[jabis]

Just asked a friend ( retired in the finance buisness 4years ago at 55years old)

"What does junk status mean ?"

he answered

"even Ocean Finance would't touch you with a bargepole"

[PaulSmith]

"Since our last rating action on March 31, 2009, the economic conditions
in Lithuania have continued to deteriorate and GDP is presently anticipated to
contract by 18% in 2009. Consequently, the bank's nonperforming loans (NPLs)
soared to Lithuanian Litas 514 million, an amount that exceeds reported
shareholders' equity and accounted for as much as 11.64% of total loans at
June 30, 2009, compared with only 1.64% a year ago. "

I make that £130m. :agree:

[jabis]

"Since our last rating action on March 31, 2009, the economic conditions
in Lithuania have continued to deteriorate and GDP is presently anticipated to
contract by 18% in 2009. Consequently, the bank's nonperforming loans (NPLs)
soared to Lithuanian Litas 514 million, an amount that exceeds reported
shareholders' equity and accounted for as much as 11.64% of total loans at
June 30, 2009, compared with only 1.64% a year ago. "

I make that £130m. :agree:

aw well,they just have to find 14 Craig Gordons,and their current team have.........Nade !

[Dashing Bob S]

Looking sweet. Hopefuly have more grim news in the Yams department to take us up to the Hamilton game a week on Saturday.

[Phil D. Rolls]

I'm afraid I know little about finance, and this makes no sense to me at all. It's going to take a while to get used to being the big team in these parts and we will all have to learn how to understand balance sheets like the supporters of the (former) big team.

[degenerated]

Monmore. Hare running!

mathematically safe?

[da-robster]

I'm shocked, I don't know what to say. :greengrin #

In all serious dodging tax is standard business procedure, just because it's wrong doesn't mean it doesn't happen.Romanov is just doing what big businesses do if it is the difference between profit and loss morality will play no part.

[Peevemor]

I'm shocked, I don't know what to say. :greengrin #

In all serious dodging tax is standard business procedure, just because it's wrong doesn't mean it doesn't happen.Romanov is just doing what big businesses do if it is the difference between profit and loss morality will play no part.

As I posted before, the issue isn't avoiding taxes. His bank (among others) was dealing with the issue of government development loans. He set up such a loan for another of his companies, then immediately transfered the money to secret, offshore accounts.

That's not tax dodging, it's fraud.

[MADE IN LEITH]

Interesting article here on Romanov's Modus Operandi.

http://flarenetwork.org/blog/2009/09/01/republika-srpska-loans-of-interest/

Sounds like the kind of decent chap you would want running your football club.

..... and this was posted almost 4 years ago!

[BarneyK]

..... and this was posted almost 4 years ago!

:agree: Yep. Kind of makes a mockery of all those "it wasnae us", "It was all Vlad's fault" protestations. It was always fairly obvious to anyone who cared to look that he was up to no good and they sat back and done nothing, happy to enjoy the relative success it brought them. **** them.

[Sanger]

Here's the US court writ from 2008 for his $7 million fraud in the US.

http://judicialview.com/ajaxupload/upload_pdf/Business_Entities/1215020284.pdf

[Sergey]

Vlad was sighted in Russia yesterday. The article says that he will not be returning to Lithuania any time soon.

http://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvos-diena/aktualijos/prokuroru-ieskomas-v-romanovas-megaujasi-vasara-pamaskveje-201308231400.htm

[MADE IN LEITH]

:agree: Yep. Kind of makes a mockery of all those "it wasnae us", "It was all Vlad's fault" protestations. It was always fairly obvious to anyone who cared to look that he was up to no good and they sat back and done nothing, happy to enjoy the relative success it brought them. **** them.

Yeh mate, they all had the foresight but chose to ignore and cheat....that's pretty much how it panned out.

[whiskyhibby]

I was in Moscow all last week and sure I saw him at the Teatralnaya underground station