Latvia's Corruption Scandal Is Getting Even Weirder

Its central bank chief has been charged with bribery. A lawyer liquidating the bank that was accused of bribing him was killed in a hail of machine-gun fire. And one of the bank’s biggest lenders was shut down after U.S. allegations of money laundering and violations of sanctions on North Korea. What’s going on in Latvia? The Baltic nation of 2 million people, once an unwilling part of the Soviet Union, is no stranger to financial scandal. After episodes of drama befitting a new Netflix series, the country is locked in a standoff with the European Central Bank that could go on for quite a while.

Ilmars Rimsevics, who’s been in charge of Latvia’s central bank as governor or deputy since 1992, is accused of soliciting a bribe from Trasta Kommercbanka AS, a small lender that was shut in 2016 after being implicated in a $20 billion money-laundering scheme. Specifically, he’s accused of receiving 250,000 euros ($294,000) five years ago and a paid fishing trip to Russia’s far east in 2010 in exchange for helping Trasta with its regulator problems. Prosecutors allege he received the bribe in payments between 2012 and 2013. However, he denies all allegations and refuses to resign, despite being urged to do so by the country’s political leaders. Since EU law states that the heads of central banks can be removed only if found guilty of “serious misconduct," this standoff might last until his second term runs out at the end of 2019.