Facing Trial and IMF Snub, ECB Banker Heads to Washington Anyway

(Bloomberg) --

Latvia’s central bank governor led delegations to International Monetary Fund get-togethers for years before being charged with bribery. Now, shut out of his country’s traveling party for the lender’s October bash, he’s heading to Washington all the same.

Ilmars Rimsevics, who also sits on the European Central Bank’s interest rate-setting panel, says he’s going for four or five days of investor meetings with members of the Bank of Latvia’s reserve-management committee. His plans surprised many back home, where politicians have repeatedly urged him to resign.

“If he travels to Washington, it won’t be as part of the official delegation,” Finance Ministry spokesman Aleksis Jarockis said by phone.

Suspended from his job and banned from leaving Latvia following his detention in early 2018, Rimsevics returned to work this year thanks to a ruling by the European Court of Justice.

As well as refusing to quit, he professes his innocence and sees no reason to step out of the public spotlight, traveling to Frankfurt for the ECB’s monthly policy meetings and holding news conferences in Riga.

They’ve often been uncomfortable. At one, a woman stood next to him with a poster saying “Have you no shame?” Questions on his criminal case are off limits.

Those bribery allegations haven’t gone away: he’s due to face trial next month. Meanwhile, parliament is considering four candidates to replace him when his third term ends in December.

A new face could help repair the Baltic nation’s reputation after a string of money-laundering cases and the closure of some banks.

This time around, Latvia’s IMF delegation will be led by the finance minister and will include the central bank’s head of international relations and communications.

Rimsevics confirms he won’t be attending the IMF meetings themselves but has permission from a judge to go to Washington, having already visited Iceland, the U.K. and Switzerland this year for work.

“I travel all the time,” he said by phone, declining to provide the precise dates of his U.S. trip.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Eglitis in Riga at aeglitis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley

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