Hailed saviour of Hearts but warrant out for Romanov’s arrest over £308m
Officials in Lithuania bid to question tycoon over bank collapse
HE was welcomed to Tynecastle with open arms, hailed as the saviour of a club crippled with debt and tipped as the man who could take them to the top spot in Scottish football.
But after a string of controversial sackings and resignations, financial difficulties that took Heart of Midlothian to the brink of collapse and a legacy which left it £30 million in debt, Vladimir Romanov is now a hate figure of Scottish football – but that is the least of his worries.
The Lithuanian tycoon is now in exile in Russia as prosecutors in his home country attempt to bring him to trial for fraud and largescale embezzlement after he is said to have plundered more than £300m from his now-collapsed bank. So how did it come to this? A young Romanov took over as the head of the family at the age of 16 after the death of his army officer father and his entrepreneurial skills blossomed quickly.
As a taxi driver he sold bootleg records from the back of his car before moving on to sow the seeds of his business empire by buying in raw materials from Russia and turning them into goods back in his homeland.
His wealth boomed as he took advantage of state enterprises being sold off to the highest bidder, before he created the Ukio Bank and its investment offshoot.
He eventually amassed a fortune of almost £260m, allowing him to make football his financial hobby.
He set his sights on the Scottish Premier League and Dundee United, Dundee and Dunfermline Athletic all rejected Mr Romanov’s advances before he turned to a struggling Hearts.
The businessman was welcomed by an Edinburgh club crippled by debt and internal turmoil as fans tried to oust then chief executive Chris Robinson.
Mr Romanov initially bought a 19.6 per cent stake in Hearts during 2004/05 season, saying: “I have wanted to invest in Scottish football for a long time and Hearts represent a very good investment.”
He gradually increased his majority share to 82 per cent, using Ukio Banko Investicine Grupe (UBIG), the investment arm of Ukio Bank, to buy the club.
However, Mr Romanov’s involvement did not solve the club’s money worries and in 2008, UBIG had to reduce Hearts’ debt levels by releasing and buying more than 34 million new shares.
This was repeated two years later and again in 2011 when 16,325,000 new shares were created and sold to supporters to raise money.
Throughout this time, Mr Romanov also created turmoil on the pitch, hiring and firing a string of managers and officials and causing controversy by claiming the Old Firm were paying off referees.
The club also struggled to pay players’ wages on time.
In 2013, Hearts went into administration owing £15 million to the then collapsed Ukio Bank, but for many fans it was worth it to get rid of Mr Romanov. The bank eventually agreed to sell its shares to Scottish businesswoman Ann Budge who took over as chairwoman after the club exited administration.
Bankruptcy officials in Lithuania now believe Mr Romanov took £308m from Ukio Bank before its collapse.
Now in exile in Russia, he has avoided censure by claiming he was receiving treatment in hospital in Moscow, but was recently spotted on a Russian beach.
The Lithuanian Government has been trying to extradite him, but Russian judges have defied an international arrest warrant for his arrest.