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The former owner of a bank in Latvia has been sentenced to prison for organising the brutal daylight murder of a whistleblower.
Mihails Ulmans, the former owner of LPB Bank, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years of incarceration for ordering the 2018 murder of Mārtiņš Bunkus, a lawyer who had raised concerns about money-laundering with Latvian regulators.
The case has thrown a new spotlight on the Baltic state’s banking system — a historic weakness for the country. ABLV, another local lender, caused international headlines when it was liquidated in 2018 after being accused by the US Treasury of crimes ranging from sanctions-busting to bribery — and sparked an intensive reform of Latvia’s financial system.
On May 30 2018, Bunkus was shot as he drove through Riga during the morning rush hour. The assailants had mounted a tent on a trailer towed by a van, and used it as a hide from which to fire seven rounds from a Kalashnikov assault rifle into the lawyer’s car.
In March 2016, Bunkus, an insolvency practitioner, raised concerns with financial regulators about money-laundering involving LPB Bank, which was then owned by Ulmans, after discovering concerning financial behaviour within a company that he had been tasked with winding up.
A first attempt was then made on Bunkus’s life in September 2016 by firing a machine pistol from a motorcycle. Bunkus survived, however, because according to a police report, the assailant “aimed the firearm . . . at the side window of the driver of the vehicle and pulled the trigger of the weapon, but for reasons beyond his control . . . a ‘malfunction’ occurred and the firearm did not fire”.
In May 2017, Bunkus raised further concerns with the authorities about LPB Bank, this time in connection with another company he was administering. He found chains of transactions involving the business he was winding up which led him to believe the bank, and Ulmans himself, were involved in money-laundering.
In a statement issued before the trial, both Ulmans and LPB Bank denied the allegations. LPB Bank noted that, while it had been fined for process failures in 2018, regulators had “not identified a single money-laundering case”.
On Tuesday, Aleksandrs Babenko, one of Ulmans’ associates, was also sentenced to 15 years. Ulmans and Babenko were alleged to have pledged €300,000 for the killing, including payment of middlemen.
The shooter, Viktor Krivoshey, a Russian national who was sentenced on Tuesday to life imprisonment, is believed to have received €70,000.
The sentences can be appealed.
Kristaps Bunkus, Mārtiņš’ brother, said: “Today’s big news is that Mihails Ulmans and Aleksandrs Babenko have been found guilty of ordering my brother’s murder, each receiving a 15-year prison sentence.
“The court determined they hired a killer to silence him — all because Mārtiņš exercised his professional duties with dedication. Given the circumstances, 15 years hardly feels sufficient.”
Allies of Ulmans sought to paint the trial as part of an attempt to raid Ulmans’ assets.
His lawyer told the Financial Times before the trial that “within the Latvian banking sector, there are voices boldly asserting that collusion exists between corrupt Latvian authorities and corporate raiders, targeting specific banks”.
Ulmans’ lawyer has been contacted for comment after the verdict.
In the wake of the shutdown of ABLV in 2018, Latvia introduced a range of new transparency requirements and in effect incorporated US sanctions decisions into national law. In 2023, Latvia bid unsuccessfully to have the EU’s anti-laundering headquarters based in Riga.
LPB Bank was bought by Signet Bank, another Latvian lender, in December 2023 and was rebranded as Magnetiq Bank.
The bank has also been contacted for comment after the verdict.
