Financial Crime World

Title: Belarusian Businessman Eduard Apsit: Suspected Money Launderer with Ties to Closed Latvian Bank, ABLV

Money Laundering Allegations

  • Belarusian businessman Eduard Apsit is under investigation by Latvian financial investigators for money laundering
  • Investigators suspect him of laundering tens of millions of euros through the now-defunct ABLV bank

Early Business Career

  • Founded a small dry cleaning operation in Minsk, Belarus, in the early 1990s
  • Grew into one of the largest facilities management and cleaning services in the region

Business Expansion and Wealth

  • By 2018, Apsit’s Clean World Company had branches in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
  • Impressive clients included Belarus’ National Library and main railway
  • Owned a stately home in Latvia’s Jurmala, property in Cyprus, and reportedly had millions of euros in the bank

Money Laundering Investigation

  • Around 40 million euros ($42.8 million) associated with Apsit were frozen in 2018
  • Along with 33 million euros belonging to a Ukrainian man believed to be his proxy, Sergei Semeniuk
  • Allegations that ABLV bank created a money laundering scheme, or “laundromat,” for Apsit’s benefit

Labor Violations and Corruption Allegations

  • Reports of labor violations and corruption allegations have emerged from Russia and Belarus
  • One of Apsit’s companies in Russia faced accusations of employing migrant workers from Uzbekistan under inhumane conditions
  • A director of Apsit’s Belarusian cleaning company was implicated in a bribery scandal

Challenges in Gathering Information

  • Investigators have struggled to gather information from Russia and Belarus regarding Apsit, his business, and potential sources of wealth

Journalistic Investigation

  • Journalists from Re:Baltica, IStories, Belarusian Investigative Center, and Slidstvo.Info have uncovered more details
  • Apsit’s holding company, Facilicom, gave licenses to dozens of other companies, ultimately owned or controlled by Apsit or his wife, Elena
  • These companies won significant state cleaning contracts across the region, often bidding against each other
  • The 73 million euros in question can still be confiscated as suspected proceeds of crime
  • Semeniuk, who is fighting the seizure in court, has not been able to explain how he earned such a substantial sum

Tom Keatinge’s Perspective

  • Tom Keatinge, director of the London-based Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, shares his perspective on the case
  • ABLV’s reputation for money laundering affected the Latvian and global financial economies