Astonishing Latvia

bnn-news.com reports on December 7th 2011:

BNN received an e-mail the other day: “Dear Sirs! To me BNN is like a tribune. A tribune that asks the questions some influential people would rather not reveal to the general public. Some of the questions asked cover the so called “transit wars”. I am deeply concerned about the upcoming “assault” of an enterprise that so far courageously held off the “Ventspils Commandant”. I would appreciate if you would kindly publish my opinion on this matter.” BNN kindly does what our reader asks.

Some people are familiar with the classic Business capture scheme of the early 90s from detective stories, some from detective serials on TV: bulky lads in wearing sportswear persistently offered their protection services for an ungodly amount of money to an owner of a small shop, or stall. And after the debt for “security services” grew equal to the value of the enterprise altogether, the “friendly” protectors claimed ownership over it and transformed from regular criminals into – respected businessmen.

This little scheme is what comes to mind when you’re reading reports in press about probable insolvency declaration of the largest mineral fertilizer transit terminal in Europe, the second in the world – “Kālija parks”. Even though the “protectors” have long since traded in their sports trousers for some expensive suits, even though the year round revenue of the “small shop” is accounted in six digit sums, even though the scales of pulling off something like this is hardly easy; you still accurately notice that familiar pattern.

So, the lawsuit about declaring that company insolvent came from the «ТМ Security» security firm (the same «ТМ Security» that hit the spotlight in 2010 during dramatic events around “Ventbunkers”.The ones where police were forced to neutralize a number of «ТМ Security» employees, so that the owners of “Ventbunkers” would finally be able to access their administrative building).

You’d think who cares about some dispute between some millionaires, over “who” owns “what”? So what some high ranking VIP bark on and on at each other and unleash their “hounds” with guns and lawyers with their convoluted claims? …How does this involve rest of the people in Latvia?

Let’s not haste to judge. The time to put a squeeze on “Kālija parks” couldn’t have been chosen any better. The company is now engaged in negotiations with prospective partners, and the latter may prove to be sensitive to that kind of scandals. And if the contracts are not signed – instead of a false, provocative bankruptcy, a very real bankruptcy might occur. And then, about 200 employees maintaining the terminal, employees of the businesses working in cooperation with “Kālija parks” – will end up out on the street. Consequences for Ventspils will be great, for Latvia – catastrophic.

The reputation of Latvia as a reliable transit corridor could suffer the most. A country where a small security firm can effectively paralyze the work of one of the largest enterprises in its field of business, a country where raider activity has become a profitable business, a country where bulky men in masks take active part in ownership disputes – does not sound like a good place where to start your business. Transit terminals in our neighbor countries wait in line for fertilizer supplies from Russia. And why not? Russian businessmen can choose either Lithuanian or Estonian ports for transit. The story behind the reduction of freight turnover for the last decade or so in Ventspils reflects this perfectly.

The fall of one large enterprise because of some criminal showdown can cause a chain reaction. And that would cease being a problem for one city it would become a problem for the whole country. Do the people behind the “Kālija parks” bankruptcy claims understand this? I’m sure they do, even better than we do in fact! However putting the remains of a ruined transit business in their pockets is far more profitable than letting that said business to function normally, but not under their control.

As the saying goes, I suppose, “If I don’t get some – no one does!”

P.S. on behalf of BNN: according to our internal rules, our news agency does not publish the names of the authors of the articles. The information about the author is stored in our editorial.

We can add only the fact that “Kālija parks” actively challenges the existence of any debts to both «ТМ Security» and Martins Kveps in both the Regional Court of Kurzeme and the Supreme Court of Latvia. On the 14 of December the Supreme Court of Latvia will review the claims made by “Kālija parks”. «ТМ Security» on the other hand, acting like it does not notice these claims, has initiated a case at the Regional Court of Kurzeme. It also seems that judge Lucava, even having access to the judicial system database, paid no attention to the core of the problem and initiated the “Kālija parks” insolvency process. And doing so unknowingly created an obstacle. In accordance with the Latvian legislation system an insolvency process cannot be used in a case involving debt return.

Even though the employees of «ТМ Security» joined the ranks of Zatler’s Party of Reforms, even though they claim to respect Latvian laws – reality is that «ТМ Security» shows its contempt for the law quite clearly.