The 4Finance payday loan company, set up in 2008 by four Latvian students, was taken over in late 2009 by associates of so-called oligarch Andris Šķēle and well-known businessman Māris Martinsons. They were able to escape paying taxes on cash loans almost completely by using companies in Malta and Belize, according to document copies obtained by the EIC.network of investigative journalists.
Last year Norway's Government Pension Fund invested Norwegian sovereign wealth in Latvia for the first time. A total $1.4 million was invested into pharma company Olainfarm, the fiber glass company Valmieras stikla šķiedra (Valmiera Glass), and HansaMatrix, a high-tech manufacturer, reported Rus.lsm.lv on May 9.
This week Dzintars ('Amber'), a Latvian cosmetics producer, applied for legal protection in order to stay in business. Rus.lsm.lv asked experts to point at the reasons why the once gigantic perfume manufacturer has seen its fortunes dwindle.
Around 400 special collector coins lauding entrepreneurship have been sold to the Latvian central bank's (Bank of Latvia) own employees, putting the number sold to the general public at about a mere 900 of the 3,000 coin release, reported LSM's Russian-language service Friday, citing an anonymous source.
Construction magnate and millionaire Armands Garkāns has prompted an irate reaction by buying 1,000 of the 3,000 collector coins lauding the Latvian Entrepreneur recently released by the Bank of Latvia.
The New Wave pop music festival, held in Jūrmala from 2002 to 2014, has moved to Sochi due to the political climate (and a few of the artists being barred from entering Latvia). That's why hotel reservations in Jūrmala have become much cheaper on the dates when the festival was to be held. On average, the prices are two times cheaper than last year, but in some cases it's evident that hotels had overcharged for 7 times when the city was "on the wave".
The machine-building plant Jelgavas mašīnbūves rūpnīca (JMR) is facing a possible forced shut-down of production because the bulk of its orders from southeastern Ukraine’s coal mining fields and metallurgical plants have ceased due to the war-torn region’s shattered economy, where demand for the Jelgava-produced heavy equipment has all but disappeared.
