Yes, debts must be repaid. But sometimes an attempt to collect a debt leads to a crime. Especially if people who have criminal experience in their biography undertake this work. Meet. Collection office “Arvik”, more precisely – Sabiedrība ar ierobežotu atbildību “ARVIK”. Registered in Riga, the owner is Viktor Artamonov (Viktors Artamonovs), who is also the director. According to the main page of Arvik’s website, it has achieved a 90% success rate in collections.
Not surprisingly, it is worth looking at the faces of the director, courier and consultant, flaunting a little lower on the main page of the company’s website:
For some reason, when you see these workers, you immediately want to pay off even the smallest debts. Well, just in case.
However, when you get acquainted with the real working methods of the Arvik company, you understand that everything written above is by no means a joke. In the arsenal of the work of collectors – threats, intimidation, physical impact, kidnapping. And these are not at all idle fictions of those from whom Arvik employees beat out debts.
Back in 2015, the Riga police detained seven Arvik employees for kidnapping two businessmen, citizens of Sweden and Ireland. The version of Viktor Artamonov and the detained collectors boiled down to the fact that the victims themselves attacked the collectors and threatened them with weapons. In addition, they were in fact Nigerians, which Artamonov especially emphasized.
However, all the beauty of this version was shattered by the dry lines of the detention protocol, which stated that the detained employees of the Arvik company had a police uniform, body armor, traumatic weapons and a fake police officer’s ID.
As the police press center explained shortly after the arrest, in order to kidnap their victims, the criminals tried to impersonate law enforcement officers. They handcuffed the businessmen and told them to get into the car. At the same time, it was emphasized separately: among the detainees there are people with great influence in the Latvian criminal world, who have already been tried for similar crimes.
After this detention and reports about it, the disseminated photographs helped the police to find other victims of the detainees. So in the end, information appeared about the involvement of these people in at least four similar crimes. In three cases, it was about arson of property, in another – about extortion of money.
The proceedings lasted three years, but in 2018 all seven still went to prison.
However, the loss of valuable employees did not force Arvik LLC to close, and its director Viktor Artamonov to stop doing business. In this regard, it is interesting to read reviews both about Artamonov himself and about his colleagues in the collection shop.
All these comments are devoted to the case described above, but they suggest that the first impression of the faces of the collectors from Arvik is by no means deceiving – it is better not to run into these people not only in a dark alley, but also in a sun-drenched square.
However, this is history. Someone has already served time and returned to work again, someone is sitting out. And Arvik LLC, headed by Viktor Artamonov, continues its work. The same methods as seven years ago.
In the spring of last year, another criminal case was initiated on the fact of extortion of money against collectors from the Arvik company. This caused a resonance among the public and the media, as the brothers from the collection office knocked out debts using criminal methods: extortion, intimidation, violence. In addition, the police even know the facts of “recovery” from debtors of amounts exceeding the real debt, in order to “earn extra money.”
Interestingly, according to the police, the Arvik office is not authorized to collect debts, that is, it does not have permission for such activities, and even more so for the use of any violent actions and threats. Although the firm’s website says the exact opposite:
In November last year, the Latvian state police arrested four employees of Arvik LLC, and a little later two more. Among the prisoners was the director of the company, Viktor Artamonov. Two of the suspects were born in 1960 and the rest in 1959, 1971, 1979 and 1986.
According to police, only one of the six arrested employees of the scandalous collection office was officially registered there. All other detainees extorted debts on behalf of Arvik illegally and unofficially without any supporting documents. Baseball bats, tactical gloves and rubber mallets were found and seized during searches of the addresses and cars of the detainees.
The criminal process is investigating two episodes of a criminal offense that were committed last year in the period from July to October against one person, with the use of violence and threats in order to collect a debt. On June 16 of this year, law enforcement officers of the 2nd Division of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Main Criminal Investigation Department of the State Police transferred criminal proceedings to the Riga Northern Prosecutor’s Office to initiate criminal proceedings against six persons in accordance with Section 184, Part 2 of the Criminal Code – for extortion in the organized group, if the extortion is committed with the use of violence or threats, weapons or explosives.
For such a crime, the law provides for imprisonment for a term of three to twelve years with or without confiscation of property and with probationary supervision for a term of up to three years. As part of the criminal proceedings, a seizure was made on the company’s account, which contained 2,466.93 euros and on the money seized during the search and the money that was with the members of the group – a total of 1,475.70 euros, as well as gold items, the total cost which could range from 2080 to 2200 euros.
After that, LLC “Arvik” stopped its work for some time, however, the reason was called “unfavorable situation”:
However, the “unfavorable situation” apparently resolved quite well. Because as recently as August 6, Viktor Artamonov posted the following message on the Arvik LLC Facebook page:
Along with this message, Artamonov posted a corporate photo. Which depicts “customer service specialists”:
Comments, it seems to us, are unnecessary.
There were no reports of a trial of members of the Arvik gang (as it would be more accurate to call the employees of this collection office). Who of them was released and who else is under arrest is unknown. But the head of Arvik LLC, Viktor Artamonov, is at work and ready to receive clients.