RIGA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Latvia's third largest bank by assets, ABLV Bank, has been hit by serious bribery and money laundering allegations, made by the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in a report, Latvian media reported on Wednesday.
Proposing sanctions on the Latvian bank, FinCEN said in the report that the ABLV management "used bribery to influence Latvian officials when challenging enforcement actions and perceived threats to their high-risk business".
ABLV Bank "proactively pushes money laundering and regulatory circumvention schemes to its client base and ensures that fraudulent documentation produced to support financial schemes, some of which is produced by bank employees themselves, is of the highest quality," FinCEN said in its finding.
FinCEN has proposed sanctioning ABLV for its money laundering schemes by banning the bank from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts in the U.S. or altogether blocking the bank from the U.S. financial system.
The Latvian Corruption Prevention Bureau said on Wednesday it was launching an inquiry into the U.S. authority's allegations against ABLV Bank, which is one of the three Latvian banks directly supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB).
The Latvian anti-corruption agency's chief, Jekabs Straume, said that the bureau was analyzing the information provided by the U.S. authority and that the bureau had been dealing with information of this kind already before.
"The bureau will take all the necessary measures to establish the truth and take the necessary decisions," Straume said, declining further comments as they might comprise the investigation.
Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis commented that the FinCEN report on ABLV will inevitably affect the bank's future and reputation, but voiced confidence that in Latvia banks are properly supervised.
Noting that many banks have already been penalized for noncompliance with money laundering rules, the premier said that more detailed information was needed about the ABLV case.
Kucinskis also said that he has no information about any investigations that might lead to the conclusions that the bank has been bribing public officials to promote unlawful dealings.
ABLV Bank, which at the end of last September was the third largest Latvian bank by assets, belongs to Latvian bankers Olegs Fils, Ernests Biernis and Nika Bierne.
