He was hired on 16 November when the Bank of Lithuania suspended Snoras' operations and the government nationalized the bank.
“... a very difficult situation ... the bank needed to be resolved quickly and so we had to move very quickly, people worked extremely hard and very intensely to understand the situation and come up with an analysis of financial situation. ... The senior shareholders of the bank have abused their position and therefore left the bank in a very difficult state and therefore things had to happen very quickly,” he said after being questioned by the parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances of Snoras bankruptcy.
The commission questioned Freakley to better understand what happened to the bank, the nature of the issues and the complexity of the problems.
Vladimir Antonov, Snoras’ key shareholder, had left Lithuania before Freakley’s appointment hence they had not met, Snoras’ former temporary administrator said.
“We did try to make contact with Mr. Antonov, we did invite him to meet with us but he did not accept our invitation,” Freakley said.
Valentinas Mazuronis, the commission’s chairman, said after the meeting that Freakley had not answered certain questions from the commission’s members and the commission would wait for him to send more extensive answers in writing.
The commission wants to find out when the talks with the temporary administrator had been launched and what criteria had been used to establish his remuneration. The commission is also interested in Freakley’s recommendations to the Bank of Lithuania as to the treatment Snoras.
Vitas Vasiliauskas, governor of the Bank of Lithuania, earlier publicly confirmed that Lithuania had paid 140,000 euros to Freakley and he was allowed to bring advisers to assist.
Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas owned 68.1 percent and 25.31 percent of Snoras’ shares, respectively.
The government nationalized Snoras on 16 November. The board of the Bank of Lithuania later suspended the management of the commercial bank and appointed Freakley as temporary administrator.
Freakley worked less than a month at Snoras – from 16 November until 9 December.
Close to 61 million litas (EUR 17.68 mln) were spent on Snoras’ administration and consulting services by the beginning of March. Services of advisors alone cost 31 million litas. Some 17 million litas were transferred to the bank’s administrators and advisors from the suspension of the bank’s operations until the opening of bankruptcy proceedings.
