The helicopter belonged to Country Heli LLC, and the shares of this company, in turn, are equally owned by Scheffler-controlled Čiekuri-Shishki LLC and Aven’s company Abacus Limited, registered in Cyprus.
At the end of 2022, bailiff Elina Balanasyan sold the helicopter at a forced auction for 2.979 million euros excluding VAT, since the funds of Country Heli, as a company controlled by a person under sanctions, were frozen in Latvian credit institutions and the company had tax debts.
Debts, airport expenses and others were covered from the funds received at the auction, and the remaining 2.8 million euros were kept in the bailiff’s escrow account.
After the sale of the helicopter, Shefler’s company Čiekuri-Shishki appealed to the Riga District Court to recover 3.6 million euros of debt and interest on the loan from Country Heli. On September 13 last year, the court granted the claim, and “Čiekuri-Shishki” turned to Balanasyan with a request to proceed with the execution of the sentence.
The bailiff had suspicions that the verdict was a tool for circumventing sanctions, so she contacted the State Security Service, which opened a criminal case on November 9 last year.
During the investigation, a member of the board of Čiekuri-Shishki, Gint Rudzitis, was questioned, who testified that the Bell 429 helicopter was purchased on the basis of loan agreements concluded in 2015. At the same time, following the helicopter was sold at auction to cover tax debts, a lawyer was hired to recover the funds invested in the Country Heli company.
Shefler testified that Aven did not personally participate in the deal to purchase the helicopter, but there was an agreement with Aven’s ex-wife.
Scheffler also testified that he did not discuss the redistribution or transfer of funds received from the sale of the helicopter to Aven. Scheffler only instructed his lawyers to legally return the funds invested in Country Heli.
At the end of 2022, authorized persons of both companies signed a reconciliation act, in which they recognized Country Heli’s debt obligations to Čiekuri-Shishki in the amount of 3.6 million, and in January 2023, Čiekuri-Shishki filed a lawsuit once morest debt collection. The court satisfied the claim and the writ of execution issued by the court to collect this amount was handed over to the bailiff.
Having assessed the testimony, contents of documents and other information provided during the investigation, the State Security Service came to the conclusion that the Čiekuri-Shishki loan agreement of May 2015 and amendments to it are not fictitious.
Although during the investigation it turned out that Aven and his proxies were interested in the possibility of returning funds that were once invested in the purchase of a helicopter, the State Security Service did not receive confirmation of an agreement between the proxies of Country Heli and Čiekuri-Shishki regarding transfer of funds purchased at the auction to Aven or in his favor.
Taking into account the above, the State Security Service terminated the criminal proceedings due to the lack of a criminal offense. The State Security Service also canceled the seizure of funds belonging to Country Heli in the amount of $2.9 million.
It was previously reported that the EU sanctions list named Aven as one of the oligarchs closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who actively provided material or financial support to Russian individuals responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the destabilization of Ukraine. and benefit from it. He promised to fight these charges in court.
Aven is not prohibited from entering Latvia as he is a Latvian citizen. True, at one time the investigation into the circumstances of Aven’s acquisition of citizenship was carried out by the Department for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption. The case was closed without revealing the fact of bribery, but revealing special favor on the part of the management of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs in relation to Aven.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, discussions began regarding whether Aven should be allowed to retain his citizenship. At the beginning of this year, the director of the Bureau for the Protection of Satversme, Egil Zviedris, told the TV3 program “Nekā personīga” that “the Bureau is still waiting for information from some cooperation partners that might provide a compelling reason for making a decision that might advance the solution to the citizenship issue Avena.”
Aven was added to the EU sanctions list on February 28, 2022, and his assets and financial resources were frozen.
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2024-04-04 09:40:34
