STATEMENT

When the police take your assets under Section 195(3) of the Criminal Law for large-scale money laundering by an organised group, you lose more than just your bank account. You lose your place in the world.

Imagine telling someone new that you are under investigation for money laundering. Imagine saying you are innocent and seeing their reaction. Now picture explaining it to a business partner, a landlord, or a bank.

No bank in Europe would let me open an account. SEB bank closed my account on their own in 2022. I became unbankable in the European Union. And I didn't have any money to put in the bank. All of them were seized. Living without a bank account means you cannot receive payments, pay bills, or function in today's economy.

I could not work. I was never charged, tried, or convicted, but the case alone was enough. As a person under investigation for money laundering, I had no one who wanted to work with me. My career did not pause, it ended.

I could not start a business. No one wants to partner with someone under investigation for organised crime. No one would invest or sign a contract.

I could not plan, not even a month or a year ahead. Every future plan was blocked by a case with no timeline, no charges, and no court date. All I heard was the same phrase: "the investigation is continuing."

Then the courts made their decision. Two courts looked at the evidence and found it was not enough. The seizure was lifted. But the criminal case was not closed. People congratulated me, but I did not feel like celebrating.

Of everything I had earned, I got back just over half. The rest was lost to penalties, legal fees, and inflation while my money was frozen. Four years of my life were gone. I survived, but that was all anyone could say.

I still do not know who I am after all this. I once had a career, a direction, a homeland, and a sense of meaning. All of that is gone, and nothing has replaced it. I do not know what my goals are or if I want to rebuild anything.

My trust in my country's institutions is gone. I believed that if you act openly, declare your income, pay your taxes, and follow the law, the state will protect you. Instead, it almost broke me.

The people responsible, the investigators whose materials two courts found insufficient and who kept the case going for years without charges or enough evidence to justify the seizure, are still in their jobs. They are not being investigated or held accountable. They are doing the same thing to someone else right now.

They are not protecting this country. They are harming it. Every case like mine drives someone else away, ends another career, and shows others that honesty is not protection, and that following the rules can still be punished. The harm is not just personal, it hurts Latvia itself.

The case is still on record. The investigation is still "continuing." When someone searches my name, the case appears. When I apply for a bank account, residency, or a partnership, the case is there. There is no acquittal on record because there was never an acquittal or a trial. The case was simply never closed.

This is what "not guilty" means in Latvia: no conviction, no closure, no apology, and no record of innocence. Just a permanent question mark next to your name.

I left Latvia because I could no longer live there. It is the country where I was born, where I paid over three million euros in taxes, and where I built my life. But it became impossible for me to stay.

The numbers on the previous page show what the state took in euros. This page is about what cannot be measured: the relationships that never happened, the work that was never done, the years that will not return, and the trust that is gone.