Traces of the “incognito” of an investment millionaire in Vilnius Trade Union Palace Business

15 minutes the publication cycle of the current study continues: the previously described, possibly unknown, described in the first part One of the richest people in Lithuania Vitoldas Tomaševskis. The second part discussed related business in Belarus, which have been included in the EU sanctions listas well as trade in Belarusian petroleum products in Lithuania. In the third part, we review possible investments in Russia. This section does not mention investments in Lithuania, as well as in Ukraine.

V.Tomaševskis and D.Vilčinskas could be among the owners of the trade union chamber

The union palace in the center of Vilnius on Taurus Hill has already been turned into ruins, but the secrecy of its leaders has been kept until now. Now 15 minutes The data collected reveals information that has not yet been seen, that may have been the true owners of the palace, during which disputes with the Vilnius municipality began.

The Palace of Trade Unions building was managed by the Lithuanian company VIPC Vilnius for many years. This company acquired the Hermis Capital Chamber of Trade Unions in 2004.

VIPC Vilnius was previously controlled by Velmark Investments Limited, a company registered in Cyprus. There have been repeated attempts in the media to explain what is behind this Cypriot company.

Until now, it was unknown that in late 2013, the owners of the Chamber of Trade Unions, the company Velmark Investments, 38 percent. direct ownership shares a Cypriot company related to the Lithuanian investor Vitoldas Tomaševskis Redcast Holdings Limited. The remaining shares were controlled by another Cypriot company, Globiance (Nominees) Limited 15 minutes collected data.

Redcast, which is linked to Tomaszewski, also lent money to the host of the Cyprus Chamber of Trade Unions. In 2010, the company He was granted A loan of half a million euros. The Cypriot company, in turn, loaned money to the Lithuanian company VIPC Vilnius.

In late 2013, the hosts of the Cyprus Chamber of Trade Unions changed, at 55.9%. Lewben, a legal services firm that manages the wealthy client business, became a shareholder.

However, Velmark Investments Financial state reveals that 55.9% of those owning the shares at the time were Lithuanian businessman Darijus Vilčinskas.

D. Vilčinskas was the director of the Lithuanian company VIPC Vilnius, who ruled the palace. There have been suspicions in the past that he, too, may be the true owner of this business.

We asked D. Vilčinskas what business links he had with another former indirect owner of the palace, the Cypriot company Redcast Holdings Limited and the investor V. Tomaševskis. The response was concise.

“I have nothing to do with the companies and the people you mentioned,” the letter said. 15 minutes D.Vilčinskas wrote.

Subsequent reports from Velmark Investments in Cyprus show that Redcast Holdings Limited, which is affiliated with Tomacevsky, had not recovered is half a million euros in debt.

The court’s decision will be appealed

The palace remained abandoned in a picturesque place in Vilnius for years, so the municipality decided to take over the building and build a concert hall there.

The verdict of the Court of Appeal was adopted this year: the Vilnius municipality must reimburse the former owner of the VIPC Vilnius Chamber of Trade Unions for a total amount of LTL 7.78 million. euros for goods purchased for public needs, more than estimated by the municipality.

The companies and shareholders who run the union chamber switched between themselves, and public attempts to find the ultimate beneficiaries were unsuccessful. There are still no clear answers on who will receive the significant amount paid by the municipality by the Chamber of Trade Unions.

Vilnius City Municipality 15 minutes He explained in a sent comment that the current court decision would have to pay 7 million for the camera. They are not satisfied with them.

“As the law gives the parties the right to request the Supreme Court of Lithuania to review judicial decisions on appeal, in this case the Municipality, to protect the public interest, will exercise this right and request the Supreme Court of Lithuania to make decisions courts that impose a salary of 7,781,000 euros. ” evaluation of legality “, – the answer was given by Karolis Žukauskas, the mayor’s advisor.

Litigation with a businessman in Lithuania

Redcast Holdings Limited, which is related to V.Tomaševskis, is also mentioned by the Lithuanian court resolutions as a creditor trying to recover half a million euros of debt from the Lithuanian businessman Juozas Kelminskas. This businessman manages the “Tvirtovė prie Didžiulio” entertainment and recreation complex near Vilnius.

The rulings show that bailiffs seized much higher value assets to recover this debt: 1.1 million. 1.65 million euros. A house was auctioned for this property, which was suspended due to a complaint by an entrepreneur about the mispricing of the property.

The $ 1 million Avia Solution Group bonds could have been a contribution to the plane

Cyprus Redcast Holdings Limited joined Tomaševskis in 2014 indicated in your documents acquired Avia Solution Group bonds. The value of the investments in these bonds is stated to be LTL 15.8 million. euros A year later, this record is gone.

Avia Solutions Group is an aviation business group controlled by Lithuanian businessman Gediminas Žiemelis.

When we found the record, we asked Avia Solutions Group about the sale of the bonds. The company 15 minutes He replied that neither Cyprus Redcast Holdings Limited nor Tomaszewski had invested in Avia Solutions Group. However, the company’s response reveals that the bonds may have been a contribution to the purchase of the aircraft.

“There have been transactions in the history of the company where an airplane is purchased or a large advance is paid for the airplane and the contribution paid by customers is formalized as bonds or the money is used through Escrow (conditional use) counts until the transaction is complete. The rotation of said funds is recorded in the financial statements accordingly. However, we are unable to disclose any details due to strict confidentiality restrictions governed by the law of various jurisdictions, ”the company replied.

In the same year, 2014, when the Cypriot company Redcast, which is related to V.Tomaszewski, announced that it had acquired the Avia Solutions Group bonds, you could buy a private luxury jet Boeing 737 BBJ, with which we recently captured V. Tomaševskis, who flew to Vilnius.

Overall, Redcast Holdings Limited, which is affiliated with V. Tomaševskis, was a very large creditor. The company’s latest available financial report for 2016 states that the company owned $ 218 million. assets in euros. Short-term loans amounted to more than LTL 101 million. € 71 million long-term euros However, the company’s own liabilities were extremely high and net worth was negative.

Invested in amber

Investor V.Tomaševskis is also interested in the amber business: the related companies own shares in a Lithuanian amber trading company. The company associated with the investor also tried to develop amber mining in the Rivne region, Ukraine. Attempts to consolidate amber mining in Kaliningrad, Ukraine, were previously made public, but ambitions in Kaliningrad appear to have failed, and in Ukraine the project has stalled, has been publicly linked to local politics.

Amberhold Trading UK Limited, a company registered in the United Kingdom, was one of the first to discover the name of V. Tomaševskis when searching the Internet. Now unsubscribed jointly controlled the company V.Tomaševskis and the Lithuanian businessman Algis Bitautas.

A. Bitautas is the president of the association “Le’amber Consortium”: it unites companies that operate all over the world, dedicated to mining, production, commerce and provision of related services. A.Bitautas also owns companies that produce and sell jewelry.

A. Bitautas 15 minutes He confirmed that V. Tomaševskis is an investor who, together with him, owns the amber trading company Beata in Lithuania. A. Bitautas explained that his business partner V. Tomaševskis is not directly, but through the Lithuanian company EC Turtas managed by the Lewben office.

However, everything in Lithuania is not limited to investments. At the Le’amber Consortium, entrepreneurs had an ambition to centralize the extraction, processing, and trade of amber, but not everything went as expected.

In a public announcement, the Le’Amber Consortium discussed the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement with China’s jewelry trading platform. A general photo of the participants in the meeting held in China is attached to the report: Vilius Kavaliauskas sitting together, Group leader Lewben, A.Bitautas and V.Tomaševskis.

“Strong Associations Le’amber Consortium and [Kinijos įmonės] The union will create a transparent and open amber trade platform for amber traders worldwide, promote well-organized and mutually beneficial development of the amber trade, ”the report said in 2018, stressing that China is one of the largest users of amber in the world.

A. Bitutas: we could not reach an agreement with the Kaliningrad plant

A.Bitautas, the owner of the amber business, explains that a joint venture was established together with V.Tomaševskis in the UK, but that it did not work and that the investor in the Beata company operating in Lithuania is not overly interested.

“Vitold Tomaševskis is just a shareholder of Beata and that’s it. He is not involved anywhere, in fact he is not very interested in this business. Virginia. Once he became a shareholder, he bought, bought shares of the then partner and, in fact, the business is not very interesting for him, because now it is quite small, especially in the crisis period, “explained A. Bitautas.

It is clear from his narrative that the association had high ambitions to bring together amber miners and processors and sell items in China, which is considered the largest market for amber items.

“The general essence of the association was to unite businesses, centralize production, commerce and mining. (…) And we did not manage to reach an agreement with Russia, with the Kaliningrad plant. Currently, Lithuanian producers have many problems: both the lack of raw materials and many other things. Now there is a Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and practically all the raw material is moved through the Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange. And we have not been able to resolve this matter, at least for the moment, “says A. Bitautas.

He regrets that surplus production in Kaliningrad, as well as illegal trade from Ukraine, have reduced amber prices.

“It happened that raw material recipients and miners started exporting raw materials directly to those markets and in large quantities. So they toppled the local producer. Imagine why buy cinema in Lithuania, if you can take the raw material to do it in China. And it turned out that these traditional handicrafts, which had been maintained quite well for many years, failed to go out into the world. Today they are in such a stagnant and even distressed state, “says A. Bitautas, calculating that the number of companies operating in the sector It has been reduced several times.

The project in Ukraine is linked to local politics.

Redcast Holdings Limited, a Cypriot company associated with Tomashevsky, also owns half of ukrainian companies Red.Met, which obtained a permit in 2016 to dig amber in the Rivne region, Ukraine. The other part of the shares belongs to the Estonian company Foksercom.

Deputies of the Rivne Regional Council of Ukraine had to invite police officers to discuss amber permits due to confusion: public activists protested the decision to allow a private company to dig amber, suspecting that the applicants had bribed individual deputies , wrote ukrinform.ua.

Ukraine the described means Allegations that Volodymyr Prodivus, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, a member of the Party of Regions, contributed to the issuance of permits. It has been speculated that it is this politician who may control part of the Ukrainian amber business Red.Met through an Estonian company. Previously, in 2014, this politician’s participation in the shooting was announced in an attempt to redistribute influence. spheres in the illegal extraction of amber.

Illegal amber mining is a widespread phenomenon in Ukraine, with serious social and ecological consequences, with a large number of criminal gangs, frequent clashes with law enforcement and the landscape severely affected by irresponsible mining practices. However, locals are at risk of illegally digging amber due to the potential potentially higher earnings, described by abc.net.au.

The president of the Lithuanian Amber Association, A. Bitautas, assured that he has nothing in common with Ukraine and the Red.Met company.

“In fact, here is a very old history with Ukraine, it seems to me that it is four years old.” How that situation ended there, it’s hard for me to say, from what I’ve heard, that there wasn’t much out there. Because there the political situation is turbulent, and all other things, wars. I do not know much who came out, what was promised, as far as I know, was not fulfilled, “says A. Bitautas.

“The Lewben-managed offshore has repeatedly echoed in several stories.

The records documents show that the Lewben law firm manages V. Tomaševskis related companies. The services of this company are used by wealthy people who want to remain confidential.

Lewben’s representatives’ relationships with other Lithuanian businessmen have been repeatedly described in various stories. It has already been announced that Lithuanian intelligence has previously blocked investment companies. Lewben Investment Management plans to acquire Business Triangle.

The Cypriot company Tenolet introduced the former director of the National Theater of Opera and Ballet of Lithuania. In the suspicious transactions of Gintautas Kėvišas, also – In the sale of companies Arviwhich were later annulled by the court. Another example was the mention of suspicious data from Mossack Fonseca Transactions of the Cypriot company Wallitus Investments. As data from the Cypriot registry shown earlier in this article show, Darius Vilčinskas, a Lithuanian businessman associated with the Chamber of Trade Unions, could also use the services of Lewben.

The Lewben Group companies, which began operating in early 2009, provide their clients with asset, welfare and fund management services, as well as financial planning, legal, tax and business advice and accounting services. The group is said to have offices in Amsterdam (Netherlands), London (UK), Manila (Philippines), Nicosia (Cyprus), New York (USA) and Vilnius, BNS previously wrote.

Vilius Kavaliauskas is the Chairman of the Lewben Board, and Rita Kavaliauskienė and Justinas Klimašauskas also work on the Board.

The international banking and financial markets magazine Euromoney has repeatedly recognized the Lewben Group as the best provider of family office services in Lithuania.

About research and sources

This journalistic investigation was carried out by Birutė Davidonytė and Ernestas Naprys, journalists from the Investigation Department, for 15 minutes.

We rely on publicly available information, testimonies, and responses from story participants to each person.

The study used data from legal entities and property registries in Cyprus, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania. The investigation was also based on information provided in Lithuanian and foreign judgments or lawsuits, as well as on the financial statements of companies in different countries. Reports from foreign media, social media accounts, testimonials, and other public sources of information helped establish the connections.

In conducting this investigation, we tried to listen to V. Tomaševskis’ own position in several ways: we asked his representatives questions both in Lithuania and in Switzerland. However, their responses have not yet been received and all requests have been rejected.

The relationships between the individuals and legal entities described may have changed.

If you have more information on the subject, you would like to ask a question: you can write to the research team for 15 minutes by email at [email protected].