The Podgorica Higher Court has issued an interim security measure ordering Adriatic Bank to suspend payments or transfer of money of 1.5 million euros from the account of Pavel Mitrofanov, who holds Latvian and Russian passports, on suspicion that the property was acquired through criminal activity.

The measure was adopted following the proposal of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) from December last year, which proposed the adoption of an interim measure, due to reasonable suspicion that Pavel Mitrofanov, together with other related legal and natural persons, committed the criminal offense of money laundering, against whom a financial investigation has been initiated.

In the draft measure of the SDT, it is pointed out that Mitrofanov is not in Montenegro.

Mitrofanov's lawyer said that his client concluded a purchase contract with a Ukrainian citizen for a price of 710,000 euros in March last year for a residential space of 190 square meters, a swimming pool and with the exclusive right to use a plot of land of 360 square meters.

It is a luxury property in Zavala, and in April last year, the Municipality of Budva published a public notice on the call for payment of real estate tax for Pavel Mitrofanov Petrovich from Latvia.

A search of Russian media information can be linked to the former vice governor of Tyumen (the Asian part of Russia), who more than a decade ago was accused of giving bribes to a police official in an affair with embezzlement of loans, but during a business stay abroad at the end of 2012 he learned about the criminal proceedings and did not return to Russia. He later settled in Latvia, where he was granted refugee status.

He was sentenced in absentia in Russia in 2018 to eight years in prison and fined, and the case was later remanded for retrial. He denies allegations of bribery and says he does not trust Russian authorities.

Media information also states that at the beginning of his business career, he received a large loan from the regional government for the company, which he managed, the company later went bankrupt, the loan was not repaid, while he became vice governor. His business is oil, banking, and television.

According to data from the past year, behind Podgorica's “Adriatic Bank” is the company “Adriatic Capital LLC” from the US state of Delaware, which in January 2020 bought 100 percent of ownership in the then Nova Banka for 7.1 million from “Azmont Investments”, which was building the “Portonovi” complex in Kumbor, which is backed by the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The majority owner of the company in Delaware is Aleksandar Schneider with a 95.01 percent stake. Schneider is originally from Ukraine and has been operating mainly in Canada for decades. This billionaire once tried his hand at the Željezara in Montenegro, but that business episode ended ingloriously.

Action for Social Justice

Ines Mrdovic