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Amsterdam Trade Bank

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Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V. (ATB)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1994 (1994)
Defunct2022 (2022)
Headquarters
Amsterdam, North Holland
,
Netherlands
Key people
Ron Emerson (Chairman)
Oren Bass (CEO)
RevenueIncrease €103.1 million (2010)
Increase €32.8 million (2010)
Increase €8.16 million (2010)
Number of employees
200 (2014)
Websitewww.amsterdamtradebank.com

Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB) was a commercial bank registered in The Netherlands between 1994 and 2022.[1] The bank focused on providing trade financing for companies wishing to do business in former Soviet states.

ATB was supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank.

History

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The company was founded in 1994 through Alexander Smolensky as Stolichny Bank International, a subsidiary of the Russian SBS-AGRO Bank (Russian: СБС-Агро)[a] to provide trade financing for companies wishing to do business in former Soviet Union.[2] In addition to the Netherlands branch, Stolichny Bank International had other international branches in Kazakhstan and Macedonia.[3] Following the 1998 Russian financial crisis, SBS-AGRO, which was Russia's largest private bank, went through restructuring.[2]

In 2001 it became a subsidiary of Russian private investment consortium Alfa Group through ABH Holdings S.A. a limited liability company (Luxembourg) and its subsidiary ABH Financial Limited which partially controls Alfa-Bank's assets.[4][5][b] Ukrainian-born Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman later stated that through Alfa-Bank he indirectly owned a minority stake in ATB.[6][7]

Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V. opened an internet branch in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria in 2003, 2006 and 2011, respectively.[8]

On April 22, 2022, the Amsterdam District Court declared the bankruptcy of Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V.[9]

Controversies

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In 2004 and again in 2007, an ATB account of the offshore company Sevenkey Limited, which is owned by Olga Shuvalova (wife of Igor Shuvalov) and supported by the Alexander Mamut-founded ALM Consulting (Russian: «АЛМ-Консалтинг») law firm, was used to transfer large amounts in US dollars to Gallagher Holdings Limited, which is associated with Alisher Usmanov, and a bank account of the company Unicast Technologies Corporation, which is associated with Eugene Shvidler.[10][11][12][13] Usmanov used the money from the 2004 transactions to purchase his stake in the Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus Group.

In 2017 the international investigative journalist collaboration claimed ATB was involved in an infamous money laundering scheme, something the bank denied.[14] Allegedly, $34.5 million moved through Amsterdam Trade Bank accounts.[15] Paul Radu led the investigations, and ATB offices were searched by the Dutch financial crimes prosecutor (Dutch: Fiscale inlichtingen- en opsporingsdienst (FIOD)). The search did not result in proof of money laundering, although the bank had nonetheless placed a heavier emphasis on its compliance department following the events.

Corporate governance

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Acting directors of ATB in 2018 were:

  • Harris Antoniou (CEO)
  • Eric Steeghs (CFO)
  • Peter Ullmann (CRO)

There were also a number of non-acting directors in Supervisory Board.

Notes

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  1. ^ In 1996 after Stolichny Savings Bank (SBS) (Russian: Столичный банк сбережений, English Capital Savings Bank) bought the state-owned Agroprombank (Russian: Агропромбанк), SBS-AGRO was the new merger of the two banks.[2]
  2. ^ In 2015, ABH Holdings had four subsidiaries: ABH Financial Limited, which partially controls assets and operates mainly through JSC Alfa-Bank; ABH Ukraine Limited; ABH Kazakhstan Limited; and ABH Belarus Limited.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Sterling, Toby (22 April 2022). "Amsterdam Trade Bank, part of Russia's Alfa Bank, declared bankrupt". Reuters.
  2. ^ a b c Higgins, Andrew (4 October 2000). "A Russian Banker Rebounds By Outfoxing His Creditors". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 13 February 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021. Archived website is in Russian.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ Скворцов, Ярослав (Skvortsov, Yaroslav) (19 May 2003). "Борьба за престол Александра Павловича" [Fight for the throne of Alexander Pavlovich]. Грани.ру (Grani.ru) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Moody's downgrades Amsterdam Trade Bank's deposit ratings to B2, negative outlook". Moody's. October 23, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "ABH Holdings S.A. Luxembourg". Luxembourg At a Glance. 22 October 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  6. ^ Злобин, Андрей (Zlobin, Andrey); Березанская, Елена (Berezanskaya, Elena) (21 October 2019). "Фамилия, имя, друзья Путина: как прошло заседание мадридского суда с участием Михаила Фридмана" [Surname, name, friends of Putin: how was the meeting of the Madrid court with the participation of Mikhail Fridman]. Forbes.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 5 February 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Fridman niega ante el juez haber tenido capacidad decisoria alguna en las mercantiles implicadas en la asfixia de Zed" [Fridman denies before the judge having had any decision-making capacity in the mercantile companies involved in the asphyxia of Zed] (in Spanish). Europa Press. 21 October 2019. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Alfa-Bank: The Netherlands". Alfa-Bank website. March 2014. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  9. ^ "DNB activeert depositogarantiestelsel voor klanten van Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V." (in Dutch). Retrieved 2022-04-22.
  10. ^ Alpert, Bill (3 December 2011). "How a Putin Aide Gained $119 Million". Barron's. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  11. ^ "A Golden Sevenkey". Wall Street Journal. December 2011. Archived from the original on 6 February 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  12. ^ Иваницкая, Надежда (Ivanitskaya, Nadezhda) (3 May 2012). "Траст, который лопнул" [Trust that burst]. Forbes.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 5 February 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Weiss, Michael (29 October 2014). "The Kremlin's $220 Million Man: Igor Shuvalov, Russia's deputy prime minister, is supposed to have the cleanest hands in the Kremlin. So where'd he get a quarter of a billion dollars?". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  14. ^ Janene Pieters (March 21, 2017). "Dutch banks accused of aiding Russian Money laundering scheme". NLTimes.
  15. ^ Crezee, Bart; Goslinga, Maaike; Frederik, Jesse [in Dutch] (23 March 2017). "Miljarden dollars aan Russisch witwasgeld belandden op Nederlandse en Europese rekeningen. Hoe zit dat precies?" [Billions of dollars in Russian money laundering ended up in Dutch and European accounts. How about that?]. De Correspondent (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 3 December 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
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