Energy, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Oil, Transport

Claiming to be a knight in shining armor Olafs Berkis, who has defrauded Ventbunkers of tens of millions in the past, has recently accused the legitimate VBU management of “causing loses for the company”. Berkis who, with the help of a falsified shareholders register and a falsified shareholders meeting, has been fraudulently registered as a Supervisory Board Chairman of Venbunkers is now making unsubstantiated allegations against the legitimate management board appointed by the legitimate Supervisory Board led by Dr. Rudolf Meroni.

“These allegations by Olafs Berkis are lies, pure and simple. He is attempting to cover up what he has done in the past and on the first day of his false registration. Berkis has been defrauding the company for many years. I caught him in 2009, and I kicked him out from controlling the management. He is desperate as are his cohorts. In 2009 for fuel oil alone our experts have estimated that amounts in excess of 12 million Euros per year were extracted from the company with his fraudulent offshore schemes. Once diesel oil has been calculated and further years considered the amounts will be considerably higher. We estimate a dimension substantially more than 20 Million Euros for 2008 and 09. And these are facts not just accusations. Berkis fraudulent offshore schemes did not only deprive the other Ventbunkers shareholders from their legitimate income, but he also stole legitimate tax money, which Latvia badly needs. And these are Millions!” stated Dr. Rudolf Meroni, the only legally appointed Chairman of the Ventbunkers Supervisory Board. Berkis’ statements are also contested by Ventbunkers: “Berkis has no professional or academic education other than that he was an autodidactic photographer. But he was the best student of Aivars Lembergs! That is probably where he learnt how to defraud money from the fellow shareholders and how to steal tax money.”

On 18 December 2009 Berkis with the help of Martins Kveps organized a false shareholders meeting of Ventbunkers and illegally took control of the company for one month. In January 2011 the Ventspils City Court finally ruled that this was a falsified meeting and nullified it, ordering the Register of Enterprises to remove all the false documents from the Register. During this month Berkis’ management board signed the now infamous Litasco contract for the transshipment of fuel in 2010 with questionable contract terms. This contract and the following events, which Berkis in collusion with Litasco orchestrated, caused a huge damage for Ventbunkers in excess of 40 million EUR. It is not true that Litasco has a valid claim of 30 million against Ventbunkers, but Ventbunkers has a valid claim of 40 Million against Litasco for blocking the fuel oil terminal for many months. Ventbunkers claim was secured with a legal retention right on 47’000 MT fuel oil with a value of 30 Million USD. On the first days of his registration in the Register Berkis released the fuel oil to his friends from Litasco and immediately caused Ventbunkers a loss of 30 Million USD. It is too much for the first month. What will follow?

“The exclusive contract with Litasco was intended as part of a fraudulent offshore scheme from its beginning in 2008. The prices charged by Ventbunkers to Litasco for its services in 2009 were in the average 2-3 Euros per ton. The fair market value would have been EUR 7.50.” On every ton transshipped 5 EUR immediately for the pocket of Berkis and his accomplices? Brilliant! “The legitimate Ventbunkers management has negotiated a tariff of EUR 7.80 for 2011/12 with Mercuria SA.” stated Dr. Rudolf Meroni.

The Ventbunkers management uncovered many different schemes at Ventbunkers and subsidiaries when taking over the management control in 2009. As an example: 29 million USD belonging to the Ventbunkers subsidiary Latviajs Naftas Tranzits (LNT) are still controlled by the dubious company Miselva in Liechtenstein. For years they refused to transfer it to LNT. In total, LNT holds cash assets in the banks in the dimension of 80 Million USD. “It is worthwhile to falsify a Register entry for this amount.” said Meroni. “I tried to recover the amount of 29 Million for LNT, but now it will disappear elsewhere.

It is not normal that the management of a company may be taken over by the help of falsified documents, and the state does not react to it appropriately. It is how O. Berķis has taken control over the company AS Ventbunkers and has appointed his team of “professionals”. If the team of these professionals is examined – then this list is quite mixed – beginning with people who are suspected of committing serious crimes, and attorneys, whose attorney's licence had been annulled, and lawyers, whose main professional feature is the ability to “arrange” things in law enforcement authorities.

Allegations of Berģis with regard to the unprofessionalism of Meroni management are to be fully dismissed. “In 2010 the Supervisory Board of AS Ventbunkers elected the Management Board whose members were selected according to their professionalism and corresponding education criteria having various degrees in higher education, Master's degree in Economics, MBA Master's degree in Economics, and who have a good command of several foreign languages” – says R. Meroni, the Chairman of the company's Supervisory Board. Of course, such people, who have experience in the leading positions in banks, international companies and who are independent, are not wanted by Berķis, because there is a huge possibility that his established theft schemes will be revealed, which is being strived to be done as of today. Intellectual, competitive, and independent people are not needed in the company's management system of Berķis.

Similarly, from 2010 various development plans have been launched in the company, which in the future could help the company save money, by introducing environmentally friendly solutions. As one of the most significant solutions the following could be mentioned: the transition from boiler houses to the environmentally friendly and cheaper fuels, changes to the infrastructure of terminal, the replacement of old machines with modern and more secure ones, as well as many other solutions. It should be noted that this new approach to business excludes any possibility to divert money to the offshore companies, which would not please Berķis at all. Clearly, now the management of Berķis will try to claim that these works are their own and will advertise it. Certain parallels may be drawn between the management and their “leader” Berķis, who, supposedly, has not obtained his shares of AS Ventbunkers thanks to his professional qualities. It is even more strange that somebody who does not even has the higher university education makes some judgments regarding the professionalism of the management, and he does not even hesitate to hold the office of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board in a significant international company. In the developed Western countries it would not be even possible. It is not even a surprise that such person tries to make his PR, based on false facts.

The only success which this person has achieved is that he had been close to Mr. A. Lembergs, who has allocated him a small amount of shares in the company, because in what other ways a simple deckhand-tankerman could obtain shares in a company like AS Ventbunkers, from what the head became dizzy and continues to be dizzy still today. Using the fact that A. Lembergs within the framework of legal proceedings has been made relatively harmless, now Berķis enjoys his opportunity. Hopefully, the management of Berķis will be much cleaver than their “leader”.