The Russian former chairman of Portsmouth football club is to be extradited to Lithuania to face charges over an alleged £402million fraud. Vladimir Antonov, 37, and his associate, Lithuanian businessman Raimondas Baranauskas, 56, controlled Bank Snoras, with offices in Lombard Street in the City.
In 2009 I revealed that the City watchdog at the time, the Financial Services Authority, was fighting hard to keep Bank Snoras out of London after finding it falsely claimed to protect deposits. But the bank invoked a European Union rule that says if an institution is licensed by one EU regulator, then other EU countries must let it in.
The bank was seized by the Lithuanian government in 2011 after its banking regulator found a huge black hole in its assets, and the FSA revoked its UK licence. On Monday, a judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court rejected claims that the case was politically motivated and he ordered the bosses’ extradition.