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Vanuatu’s central bank has revoked the international license of Pacific Private Bank (PPB) following an OCCRP and 15min investigation, which revealed how the founders of Lithuanian crypto-finance firm Bankera acquired and used the institution to siphon funds from their investors.
The April 28 investigation by OCCRP and 15min showed how Bankera’s three founders — Lithuanian businessmen Mantas Mockevičius, Vytautas Karalevičius and Justas Dobiliauskas — used PPB to move more than 45 million euros raised from investors in Bankera’s 2017-2018 initial coin offering (ICO) out of Lithuania.
Leaked Bankera records and bank statements show the funds were used to underwrite loans to other companies owned by the same three men, which then purchased high-end real estate, including a 1.1 million euro ($1.26 million) villa on the French Riviera and multiple properties in Lithuania. Millions more were loaned by PPB directly to the three co-founders themselves, often labeled as “personal use.”
The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu announced the revocation of PPB’s international license by releasing its November 4 letter to the bank’s Managing Director, Eimantas Kazlauskas, which stated that it has decided to take enforcement measures under the International Banks Act after PPB “had failed to show good reason why its license should not be revoked.”
The letter added that PPB is now prohibited from conducting any international banking activities, and that the license must be returned to the central bank immediately. Vanuatu regulators did not provide OCCRP and its partners with detailed explanations for the revocation.
The decision follows a September letter from the central bank, which stated that PPB had violated the conditions of its license. The letter outlined plans to revoke the license unless it provided a justified explanation to regulators.
Lawyers representing PPB have declined to comment on the transactions revealed in the leaked banking materials, citing Vanuatu's banking secrecy law.
Earlier this year, PPB Managing Director Kazlauskas told reporters that the bank complies with all Vanuatu banking laws and regulations, while in response to questions from OCCRP and 15min in March, PPB Resident Director, Martin St. Hilaire said: “From my standpoint, PPB has always been compliant and a good example of a small independent private bank.”
Following the OCCRP and 15 min investigation Lithuania’s Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) launched a pre-trial investigation into the actions of Bankera’s founders in May. FNTT stated that “during the pre-trial investigation, it will seek to establish all significant factual circumstances and assess whether a criminal act was committed by the company.”
So far, however, Bankera’s three co-founders — Karalevičius, Mockevičius, and Dobiliauskas — have not responded to OCCRP and 15 min’s requests for comment.
Their company’s BNK token, which it announced raised more than 100 million euros in just six months during Bankera’s 2017-2018 ICO, has since lost almost all of its value. Investors, who were promised weekly revenue-sharing payments, stopped receiving returns by 2022. Bankera continues to operate and says it serves more than one million users.
