Russian banker Vladimir Antonov, who posed as a refugee from Ukraine, is detained in France
28 December 20:18
In December, Russian banker Vladimir Antonov, co-owner of the now-liquidated Snoras Bank, which operated in several Baltic countries, was detained in France. The bank, which in the 2000s was one of the largest in the Baltic region, was declared bankrupt in 2011 and liquidated after it was found to be short of funds by about one billion euros.
Antonov’s story is told by “Present Time,” a project of Radio Liberty for the Russian-speaking audience, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Criminal cases
In November 2024, the Vilnius District Court sentenced the former owners of Snoras, Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas, to 10.5 years in prison in absentia on eight charges, including embezzlement of bank funds. The court ordered both bankers to pay €375.18 million in compensation to depositors.
After the embezzlement case was opened against him, Antonov first fled to the UK and then to Russia. There, he was also sentenced to two and a half years in prison for embezzling 150 million rubles (about two million euros) from Sovetsky Bank. According to Russian media, Antonov actively cooperated with the investigation in his homeland and testified in high-profile cases in Russia.
And then, in 2023, the banker disappeared right from his mansion on Rublevka near Moscow. His father filed a report with the police about the kidnapping and possibly murder of his son, and asked the Vilnius District Court to declare his son dead.
France
However, two years later, in December 2025, Antonov was found alive in France. As it turned out, he was living there with forged documents: he pretended to be a citizen of Ukraine and even sought asylum from the war as a refugee.
“On December 9, he was detained in France, and extradition procedures have now been initiated on the basis of a European arrest warrant,” said Lithuanian Prosecutor General Nida Grunskene. The General Prosecutor’s Office of Latvia told Present Time that they were informed of the banker’s detention and will decide how to proceed.
Since March 2025, Vladimir Antonov has been renting a house with an “incredible view” of the Morbihan Bay in southern Brittany, “hidden from neighbors and with an 18-meter swimming pool,” writes the French edition France Info. “I do not agree with what I am accused of,” Antonov said during a meeting with his son, who came to support his father. His defense lawyer asked to postpone the extradition hearing to “the second half of January.”
Banking collapse
The story of the collapse of Snoras Bank was one of the most high-profile scams in the banking sector of the Baltic States.
In Latvia, where Snoras’ subsidiary Latvijas Krājbanka (translated as Latvian Savings Bank) operated, a court in 2021 also sentenced Antonov to 6 years in prison and confiscation of property. In the fall of 2011, depositors lined up at the bank to try to get their money back. They said that they “really trusted Kryybank, but it turned out that they could not trust anyone.” The bank’s depositors in Lithuania suffered similar losses.
Small Latvian depositors who had up to 100 thousand euros in their accounts with the bank were eventually refunded from the state guarantee fund. However, large depositors suffered losses that have not been reimbursed. One of the most famous depositors of Krājbanka was the composer Raymonds Pauls: he lost almost a million euros of his personal savings.
City halls of many Latvian cities, including Riga, as well as numerous state and municipal institutions, such as schools and hospitals, also kept their funds in this bank.
Relations with politicians
Latvian investment banker Girts Rungainis emphasizes that Antonov managed to establish interaction with leading politicians in the Baltic States:
“Antonov entered the European Union and received a permit in Lithuania. After that, I personally spoke to the leadership of the supervisory body and asked them why they gave him the permit. They replied that there was political pressure,” emphasizes Rungainis.
“It was clear that this was not the right person to be close to finance. The reputational risks there were and still are very serious, and this was known and understood,” the banker notes. “But Antonov found an opportunity to interact with leading politicians – with Lembergs(Aivars Lembergs, former mayor of Ventspils, under sanctions by the US Treasury Department) and Schlessers(Ainars Schlessers, former Minister of Transport, former vice mayor of Riga, now a member of the Seimas).
In Lithuania, the owners of Snoras Bank, in addition to embezzling half a billion euros, were also accused of criminal bankruptcy, money laundering, double-entry bookkeeping, and forgery. Vladimir Antonov was recognized as the main organizer of the crimes.
In Latvia, according to the prosecution, the amount of embezzlement amounted to 140 million euros: the court of first instance there also sentenced Antonov to six years in prison with confiscation of property.
However, Antonov was sentenced in absentia. At first, he fled to the UK, but when a British court decided to extradite him to Lithuania, he fled to Russia. Antonov himself said that his flight to the UK was a “mistake”: “I should have gone back to Russia, home.”
Girts Rungainis believes that despite Antonov’s conviction, depositors in Lithuania, Latvia and other countries are not immune to similar criminal banking stories in the future. He calls for diversification of risks and close monitoring of developments in the banking sector.
