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Amsterdam Trade Bank

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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.

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

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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