Court sentences Baltic Media Alliance to EUR 3.1 million fine for breaching sanctions

At the end of January Riga District Court sentenced LLC Baltic Media Alliance (BMA) co-owner Oleg Solodov and BMA Estonian branch director Margus Merima to fines for breaching sanctions imposed by the European Union. BMA is also fined more than EUR 3 million.
Solodov and Merima were found guilty and fined EUR 25 000 each.
BMA, whose subsidiaries in Baltic States broadcast First Baltic Channel+ (PBK+) and other television channels is sentenced by the court to coercive measures – confiscation of property.
This will apply to the arrested finances of the company worth EUR 3 189 698. EUR 25 000 will be enforced from Britain-based Baltic Media Alliance Ltd., the name of which was changed to Renevo Media Ltd. not long ago.
Next week marks the conclusion of the term within which participants of the case are able to ask the court to prepare a full verdict. After that it will be possible to appeal the ruling in Riga Regional Court.
The prosecution’s press-secretary Aiga Eiduka said the prosecutor does not have plans to submit an appeal protest since the court has satisfied the prosecutor’s requested penalty.
The prosecutor previously mentioned in a statement to the press that it is believed that two legal persons signed a contract and provided financing to a person on the list of EU sanctions.
LETA reports that this person is the co-owner and council chairman of Rossiya Bank Yuri Kovalchuk, who is also close to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. In 2014 he was put on the sanction lists of the EU and the US for involvement in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
In 2019 Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council decided to ban nine Russian television programmes in which Kovalchuk is a beneficial owner.
According to the prosecution, by breaching the sanction regime, Kovalchuk acquired more than EUR 10 million. The accused committed the crime to acquire profits by breaching the EU sanction regime.
In the criminal procedure authorities arrested property worth more than EUR 3 million.
The Criminal Law provides deprivation of freedom for up to four years, community or fine for this type of crime.
The criminal case was investigated by the State Security Service before being handed to the office of the prosecutor. Although initially several other people were detained, charges have been presented to only Solodovs and Merima.
On 4 February 2019 VDD performed several searches in Riga and Tallinn. As previously reported by VDD, the investigation was performed in close cooperation with Estonia’s Security Police. It is thanks to this cooperation authorities confiscated a number of documents and data storage devices.
BMA was registered in May 2007, according to information from Firmas.lv. BMA owners are Russian citizen Aleksei Plyasunov and Solodov.
BMA also has multiple subsidiaries – First Baltic Channel, Baltic Media advertisement, Tem LV, Print Media publishing house, Ren TV Baltic and First Baltic Musical Channel.
According to data from VVD, BMA’s financial indexes are rapidly getting worse. In 2019 BMA turnover was EUR 13 421 988 and profit of EUR 1 315 930 and in 2020 turnover dropped to EUR 586 695 and profit dropped to EUR 73 608. Data for 2021 is not available yet.