SIA Manat offshore laundromat: How Andris Ovsjannikovs and Daria Terekhina defrauded Latvia for years with ABLV Bank’s complicity

SIA Manat offshore laundromat: How Andris Ovsjannikovs and Daria Terekhina defrauded Latvia for years with ABLV Bank’s complicity

27 мая 2026 г.

Evgeniy Dyatlov

Since 2018, one of the most high-profile trials related to mass money laundering has been going on in Latvia ABLVBank. The financial institution has a long history. In its best years, the bank was in the top 3 in Latvia, and its owners even occupied first place in the ranking of the richest Latvians for several years. But those days are long gone. 5 years ago above ABLVclouds gathered: signs of fraud were found, first for millions and then for billions of euros.

To date, several dozen suspects are known. Their list is growing rapidly. Some bankers have already found themselves behind bars, but at the same time some of the defendants disappeared from the materials of criminal cases. Also, law enforcement officers do not report on the return of withdrawn funds — where the money disappeared and what damage was caused to the state as a result is unknown.

One of the key employees of ABLV Bank, Andris Ovsyannikov, was detained. Together with him, the head of a branch of a Latvian bank in Minsk, Evgeniy Terekhin, went to jail. His wife Daria, the owner of a fictitious company through which funds were withdrawn, got away with it.

About how the high-profile investigation is going and why some defendants managed to avoid punishment — in our material.

Total fraud

ABLV Bank was created in 1993. At first the bank was nothing serious, but in 1995 it had two new shareholders. ABLV was bought by Latvian entrepreneurs Ernest Bernis and Oleg Fil. They equally owned 86% of the shares of the financial institution.

Ernest Bernice, Oleg Fil

The main sector of ABLV Bank’s activities was servicing foreign clients. From a standard bank, the institution transformed into a huge company that managed the investments of citizens and corporations from several dozen countries around the world.

By 2016, the bank’s assets amounted to almost 4 billion euros. At the same time, the condition of the institution’s key shareholders was also growing. At the best of times, Oleg Fil’s assets reached 314 million euros, and Ernest Bernis’s — 310 million.

Problems with ABLV began in 2018. The first to notice that something was wrong in the bank were the Americans. In February, the American Financial Crimes Network published a report in which very serious charges were brought against the leadership of ABLV: starting with «harmless» of laundering illegally obtained funds, ending with financing the DPRK’s nuclear program.

It was not possible to prove that these crimes took place, but the scandal turned out to be enormous. Therefore, the bank’s shareholders had no choice but to launch the process of self-liquidation of the bank. They played ahead of the curve, because there was no other option. The Latvian government would definitely close ABLV.

Ukrainian-belarusian ties

The fact that very serious accusations from American authorities have not been confirmed does not mean that there were no violations. Ambiguous Russian and Ukrainian businessmen loved to use the services of ABLV. One of the bank’s main clients was oligarch Sergei Kurchenko, who fled Ukraine in 2014.

Sergey Kurchenko

Before the revolution in Ukraine in 2014, Kurchenko’s assets were estimated at $270 million. In fact, the Ukrainian oligarch had much more money, and it was not for nothing that he was called Yanukovych’s «wallet». After the government in the country changed, Kurchenko did not have many options left: either end up behind bars (for financial and political reasons), or escape. He chose the second option. To this day, the businessman lives in Moscow. In the capital of Russia he feels very good. According to some sources, the offices of its structures occupy several floors in the elite business center «Moscow-City». 

The businessman faced a difficult question: how to withdraw hundreds of millions of euros.   The Latvian ABLV Bank came to the rescue and kindly invited Kurchenko to use his services. To service the huge funds of the Ukrainian businessman, the Belarusian branch of the organization began operating at full capacity. In Minsk, the institution was headed by Evgeny Terekhin. Together with the bank’s top manager Andris Ovsyannikov, they established a simple scheme: through the SIA Manat company of Terekhin’s wife Daria, huge funds began to be withdrawn from the bank. The scheme was as follows:

The main activity profile of SIA Manat is agricultural trade. With an authorized capital of 70 thousand euros, 50 million euros have passed through the company illegally since 2013. To do this, fictitious contracts were signed, and the funds went offshore.

Perhaps no one would have known about this if not for the mentioned situation related to the investigation of the American Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Since 2018, all ABLV Bank operations have come under close attention from law enforcement. Several dozen facts have emerged that confirm the illegal activities of bank employees. The owners of ABLV called this deliberate pressure and in every possible way deny the accusations made.

The fate of the ex-employees of their bank was not the best — Andris Ovsyannikov and Evgeny Terekhin were found guilty of laundering proceeds from crime and went to jail. Together with them, about 20 more former bank employees were brought to justice.

Andris Ovsyannikov at trial

But this is not the limit, the investigation continues, it is possible that the number of claims will increase as new schemes are revealed, and there will be many more suspects. 

There seems to be a logical conclusion to the story of the fraud of 50 million euros: Ovsyannikov and Terekhin are in prison. But the investigation completely forgot about Terekhin’s wife Daria. Not only was she, but she remains a key person at SIA Manat. The company continues to operate, including in Latvia.

Daria Terekhina

The main thing is that the state has not received any financial privileges; on the contrary, there is a fact of mass withdrawal of illegal funds, but along the chain they are lost in other countries. The remaining funds of ABLV Bank were distributed to calmer financial jurisdictions.

It is unlikely that mid-level bankers were the main ones in the case of laundering 50 million euros. There are clearly other, more serious faces behind them. But for some reason the investigation does not notice this. Or doesn’t want to notice?...