The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) said on February 19 that no formal charges had been filed against Bank of Latvia Governor Ilmars Rimsevics, who was detained by police over the weekend. All of this happened on the watch of Rimsevics, who became chairman of the Bank of Latvia in 1992 after attending college in New York state, and then governor, the top policymaking role, in 2001. I can lose the bank, my money, but I will never become part of it.”

Latvia has become infamous for money laundering since the high-profile Magnitsky scandal, in which $230 million in Russian taxpayers’ money was siphoned off, largely through Latvian banks, according to U.S. and European authorities. The ECB noted that ABLV has seen a sharp deterioration of its financial position in recent days

Latvia's central bank said separately that it would loan ABLV 97.5 million euros ($121 million) against "a reliable pledge of highly liquid securities" instead of 480 million euros ABLV had requested.
Latvia will ask the European Central Bank not to renew the mandate of ECB Governing Council member Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, the head of the central Bank of Latvia since 2001, amid an ECB payment moratorium and an U.S. graft investigation into Latvia's third-largest lender, ABLV. On 19 January, Rimšēvičs was released on bail.