Latvia central bank chief held over bribe demand

Riga: Latvia's anti-corruption authority said on Monday it had detained central bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics over the weekend for demanding a bribe.
"The criminal procedure is about demanding a bribe of no less than 100,000 euros," Jekabs Straume, the head of Latvia's Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau told reporters at a news conference.
Separately on Monday, the European Central Bank stopped all payments by ABLV Bank, Latvia's third biggest lender, over liquidity concerns after the US Treasury accused it of money laundering.
Straume said the US allegations do "not relate to this criminal procedure (detention) in any way at the moment".
"This means that temporarily, and until further notice, a prohibition of all payments by ABLV Bank on its financial liabilities has been imposed, and is now in effect," the European Central Bank, its supervisor, said.
The US Treasury sought sanctions against ABLV last week, accusing it of allowing clients to conduct business with North Korea, with bank executives and management bribing Latvian officials to cover up the activities.
"ABLV has institutionalised money laundering as a pillar of the bank’s business practices," the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the US Treasury, said in a statement linking some of the alleged activities to North Korea's ballistic missiles programme.
The bank has said the US accusations were based on unfounded and misleading information.
The economy in Latvia, which gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and shares a border with Russia, has been booming in recent years.
Its commercial banking sector is dominated by Nordic banks alongside a number of privately owned local lenders.