April 28, 2016
A High Court registrar has been told of “concerns” that cash from money laundering might have found its way into Blackpool FC. The issue was raised in a preliminary hearing in a bitter legal battle between the League One club’s owners, the Oyston family, and its president, Valeri Belokon, a Latvian millionaire.
Lawyers for the Oystons said it had come to light that Latvia’s financial regulator, the Financial and Capital Markets Commission (FKTK), recently imposed a heavy fine of more than €1m (£780,000) on Baltic International Bank, which is owned by Belokon.
The fine was imposed for “repeated violations” of money laundering rules and “transactions that subjected the bank to a significant money laundering risk”, said Eric Shannon, representing the club owner, Owen Oyston, and his son Karl, the chairman, and their company Segesta Limited.