Swedbank, DnB Nord seek 20 million euros from a bankrupt chemicals trader
22.02.2012, 12:34Two large banks, Swedbank and DnB Nord, have filed a criminal case against Intopex Chemicals, a company with shady owners, that was last week declared bankrupt, writes Äripäev.
According to the paper, banks are seeking a total of 20 million euros that they lent to the company in 2009 , claiming that representatives of Intopex Chemicals gave them false data.
Andresi Kozlov, board member and owner of Intopex Chemicals, is the main suspect and has already been questioned by prosecutors.
When Äripäev asked prominent transit trade professionals such as Raivo Vare, Toomas Saks, Endel Siff and Oleg Ossinovski whether they had heard of Kozlov or Intopex Chemicals, they said that they knew practically nothing about them.
Veli Kraav, bankruptcy trustee of Intopex Chemicals, told the paper that the company was trading with raw materials imported from Russia and when the banks started to check the collateral of the loan contract, they found that there was none.
“At the time of signing the loan contract, there was no reason to suspect that the collateral did not exist,” Mart Siilivask, press spokesperson of Swedbank, said to Äripäev.
Intopex Chemicals also borrowed 10.8 million euros from DnB Banka, the Latvian arm of DnB Nord. The bank’s representative did not wish to comment the case.
Notably, in 2006 and 2007, during the real estate boom, Intopex Chemicals invested 29 million euros in real estate.
Intopex Chemicals was set up in 2006 and specialised in trading chemical goods and raw materials. The company exported 99.3 percent of its output, mainly to China.