France hands over Russian tycoon to Lithuania

French authorities handed over Vladimir Antonov, former owner of Lithuania’s Snoras bank, to Vilnius authorities. Antonov was arrested in western France in December under a European arrest warrant and was transferred from French custody to Lithuania after a French court approved extradition. He was convicted in Lithuania in 2024 and sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for embezzlement, squandering of funds, fraudulent bankruptcy, handling illegally acquired property, fraudulent accounting, and document forgery. Another Snoras executive was also convicted. The crimes date to 2008–2011, when Russian-controlled Snoras was Lithuania’s fourth-largest bank, with estimated losses of at least €478 million. Antonov had earlier been arrested in the UK in 2011 and released, and he built his banking holdings after buying a small bank in 1998.

"The French authorities have handed over the former owner of Lithuania's Snoras bank to the authorities in Vilnius, the country's prosecutor's office said on Monday. Russian tycoon Vladimir Antonov, who is a former owner of English football club Portsmouth, was arrested in the Morbihan area of western France under a European arrest warrant in December last year. He was transferred from custody in France to Lithuania. A French court ruled early last month that he could be extradited."

"Anatonov was convicted by a court in Lithuania in 2024 and sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for embezzlement, squandering of funds, fraudulent bankruptcy, handling illegally acquired property, fraudulent accounting and document forgery. Another Snoras executive was also convicted in the case. The offences date back to the period 2008 to 2011, when the Russian controlled Snoras, which at the time was Lithuania's fourth-largest bank."

"According to the arrest warrant, losses were estimated to be at least €478 million ($557 million). Antonov was held under an initial arrest warrant in 2011 in the United Kingdom, then released. In 1998, when Russia was hit by one of its worst financial crises, Antonov, then aged 23, bought a small bank with his father. In the early 2000s, he went on to take control of a series of banking institutions in Russia and abroad, including Snoras and Latvia's Latvijas Krajbanka."

Read at The Local France