The bank said that no investigation was carried out in connection to its operations, pledging to cooperate with the authorities in the probe of possible crimes.
Prosecutor Donatas Puzinas of Kaunas Regional Prosecutor's Office confirmed to BNS on Tuesday that an investigation had been launched in response to a request by representatives of investment fund Hermitage Capital Management where Magnitsky worked.
"An investigation has been launched (...) into the fact that funds – around USD 13 million – were fraudulently obtained from the budget of the Russian Federation in 2008 and transferred to offshore company accounts in Ūkio Bankas," the prosecutor told BNS in a statement.
The prosecutor have temporarily froze the offshore company accounts with only incoming payments allowed. The accounts contain only LTL 40,000 (EUR 11,573), the prosecutor said.
A press release issued later on Tuesday specifies that property rights were temporarily restricted for more than 20 off-shore companies with accounts in Ūkio Bankas.
The bank's representatives who opened the accounts have been questioned as part of the investigation, and individuals who asked to open the accounts and managed them have also been identified, the prosecutor said.
The pre-trial investigation was launched by the Prosecutor General's Office last August in response to a request by law firm BrownRudnick representing Hermitage Capital Management.
The investigation was launched based on Article 216 of the Lithuanian Penal Code, stipulating criminal responsibility for legalizing money or property obtained by criminal means.
Last fall, the Prosecutor General's Office handed over the investigation to Kaunas Regional Prosecutor's Office taking into account the fact that Ūkio Bankas, owned by businessman Vladimir Romanov, is headquartered in Kaunas, Lithuania's second largest city.
Arnas Žalys, board chairman at Ūkio Bankas, said that the answers received from prosecutors indicated that the bank was not subject to any investigation.
"Management of Ūkio Bankas assures that operations of Ūkio Bankas abides by all laws of the Republic of Lithuania and EU directives (including those related to prevention of money laundering), and its operations are under constant supervision and monitoring of relevant state institutions," the bank said in a comment to BNS.
"Ūkio Bankas has always, as well as in this specific case, cooperated with relevant state institutions under procedures prescribed by laws to establish possible criminal deeds and will continue to do so," Žalys said.
He indicated that, last August, the bank was requested to provide written information about circumstances of opening of bank accounts of specified companies and cash flows in the accounts; however, no investigation was started into operations of Ūkio Bankas or any of its employees.
Hermitage Capital consultant Magnitsky died in custody in Moscow in November 2009. He was accused of tax evasions, but his colleagues believe the criminal case was fabricated in revenge for his testimony that Russian law enforcement officials may have been related to a large-scale embezzlement scheme he disclosed.
Magnitsky claimed that, in total, USD 230 million had been embezzled from the Russian budget.
The case led to creating a blacklist of individuals related to Magnitsky's death. These people were barred from getting US visas and their US accounts were also frozen. In response, Russia banned adoption of Russian children by American citizens.
