This continuation focuses on specific documents and why they’re important for understanding what happened at Probusinessbank.
What to look at first:
- Broker agreements and confirmations under the three core bridges (DMBL → Vermenda, OCIL → Ambika, BCS Cyprus → Merrianol). These show how bank assets left the balance sheet and why “repayment” was structurally optional for the receiving offshores.
- Internal reporting and correspondence around Events of Default and margin/collateral calls under those broker structures. You’ll see that the “risk” crystallized mechanically and predictably against the bank.
- Central Bank supervisory correspondence in 2015 (pre‑revocation), especially about the detection of non‑market “deposits”/positions and instructions to provision or unwind.
- Provisional administration and bankruptcy documentation quantifying the hole (e.g., the write‑down of ~USD 470m “high‑quality assets” post‑intervention).
- Ownership/control documentation linking Ambika, Merrianol, Vermenda, Wonderworks, Larienta, Lankora, etc., to the bank’s shareholders and their close circle.
A minimal reading path for newcomers:
- Start with the compact media overview by The Bell.
- Then open the primary documentation on Katz’s site: https://the-treasurer.com
- Finally, read about the additional schemes not included there:
- Mediobanca → Larienta: https://threads.chez.work/en/findings/tokmakov-and-larienta/
- Falcon Private Bank → Lankora: https://threads.chez.work/en/findings/lankora-and-falcon/
Two recurring technical patterns to keep in mind:
- “Clean face onboarding + undisclosed assignment”: a reputable borrower first, followed by reassignment to a shell that cannot be onboarded directly (see the DMBL/Vermenda analogy).
- Non‑recourse economics in practice: contract structures where the bank’s “asset” predictably disappears to a broker/third party absent voluntary repayment by the offshore.
If you only retain one test from this note:
Whenever you see that the bank’s capital is dwarfed by the post‑intervention write‑down of allegedly “high‑quality assets,” you’re not looking at “risk shifting,” you’re looking at theft engineered via documentation.