Today Swedish Radio reports that the central bank of Lithuania allege that the Russian banker Vladimir Antonov's bank Snoras has broken the law in security trading and misconduct when lending out money. It is however not known exactly what the central bank means by saying that Snoras has broken the law.
According to Swedish radio, the criticism concerning the lending of money can be connected to a large loan given to Russian company. A company which had not been able to get loans from other banks. A loan that can have led to large losses for Snoras in 2010. Furthermore, this could be the reason why the European Investment Bank (EIB) is reluctant to allowing Antonov to become part owner of Saab.
In April this year Mr. Antonov was approved to become part owner of Saab by the Swedish National Debt Office (NDO). When the head of the NDO, Bo Lundgren, was asked about the accusations from the Lithuanian central bank, Mr. Lundgren told E24 that he did not know about the allegations. But he added that these allegations would probably not lead to a different conclusion and the NDO would probably still approve Mr. Antonov. According to Lundgren, the reports of allegations can not be very seriously as the central bank has allowed Antonov to stay as owner of Snoras.
Spokesman of Antonov in Sweden, Lars Carlström, dismissed the reports that the Lithuanian central bank's criticism against Snoras is the reason why the EIB is blocking Antonov from becoming part owner of Saab.
"If that was the case, it would have been easy for the EIB just to refer to that," Carlström said and continued saying that there had been no clear explanation why Antonov was not getting approval.
A blog fueled by enthusiasm about Saab, the greatest car company between the North and the South Pole. And their cars, which probably is the only cars that would start on a cold and crispy South Pole morning.
