The FSA refused permission to conduct business in the UK because it repeatedly gave "misleading and incomplete" answers to the regulator.
The FSA also attacks the record of Bankas Snoras' largest shareholder and chairman of its supervisory board, Vladimir Antonov, whom it accuses of withholding information.
[12] Antonov owned a controlling stake in Banco Transatlantico (formerly Griffon Bank), headquartered in Dominica with a sister branch in Panama.
[15] The Swedish National Debt Office (NDO) approved Vladimir Antonov as a shareholder of Dutch car maker Spyker.
The debt office approved Vladimir Antonov's maximum investment of €30 million in Saab, owned by Spyker Cars in exchange for a stake of up to 29.9 percent of the company.
"[19][20] In an article in the Financial Times in February 2011, Antonov said that newly acquired Spyker will build the company's new C8 sports car in Coventry and will also produce a sports-utility vehicle.
[21] In 2007, Bankas Snoras acquired 29.9% of Dutch luxury automobile manufacturer, Spyker Cars, making Vladimir Antonov the single largest shareholder in the company.
[22] In January 2010, it was reported that General Motors was preparing to sell Saab to Spyker for a nominal fee, and that the Swedish government had agreed to guarantee loans for the purchase from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
[23] In January 2014, Antonov, 37, and his Lithuanian business partner Raimondas Baranauskas, 56, were alleged to have stripped nearly €500m million of assets and funds from Snoras Bank.
Säpo reported their findings to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and shortly afterwards GM stopped further talks about the deal until the Antonov family had sold their shares in Spyker Cars.
[25] In January 2011, it was reported that GM was preparing to reverse its decision not to allow Antonov to hold a financial interest in Spyker and Saab and allow him to invest.
[39] In September 2013, the hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court was told by John Hardy QC, prosecuting, that Antonov, along with Raimondas Baranauskas, "submitted false documents to the Lithuanian central bank to conceal their activity across 33 transfers between 2008 and 2011".
[41] In January 2014, Judge John Zani of London's Westminster Magistrates Court ruled in favour of extraditing Antonov and Baranauskas on the request of the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office.
[45] In March 2019 Vyborg court of Saint-Petersburg sentenced Vladimir Antonov to 2,5 years of standard regime penal colony for fraud in the amount of 150 million roubles of bank Sovetsky and to a monetary fine.
In August 2021, Vladimir Antonov, as ex-co-owner of Latvijas Krajbanka, was found guilty of grand embezzlement by Vidzeme regional court and was sentenced to six years in prison, to deprivation of property as well as to recovery of 27 million euros in profit of state of Latvia.