In the request for legal assistance sent to Russian prosecutors, the Lithuanian prosecutors asked to brief the former chiefs of Snoras on the suspicions and to question them, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.
A Vilnius court in late February satisfied the prosecutors’ request to list Baranauskas and Antonov as suspects in the case, while they remain out of reach of the Lithuanian law-enforcement. The move is one of the preconditions for trials of persons who are in hiding from justice.
Antonov and Baranauskas are suspected of abuse, appropriation and embezzlement, illicit bankruptcy, legalization of property acquired by criminal methods, bookkeeping fraud, document forgery or possession of a forged document.
Russia has granted political asylum to Baranauskas and Romanov, shareholders of Snoras and Ūkio Bankas.
Operations of Snoras were suspended in late 2011, with bankruptcy proceedings opened in 2013.