LATVIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Dr. iur. Viktorija Jarkina-Toča and Alisa Leškovica, RockBridge Legal
external accountant’s liability and the boundaries of their obligation to verify whether a transaction has actually occurred. When discussing the duties and responsibilities of an external accountant, it is important to note that Lat - vian law does not stipulate a minimum set of actions that must be performed to prevent holding the exter - nal accountant liable for fictitious transactions. However, based on practice and potential risks, the minimum set of actions that have been discussed and could prevent holding the external accountant liable for fictitious transactions may include the following: • a written contract with a clear distribution of obli - gations and responsibilities; • client identification and understanding of opera - tions in accordance with the requirements of the anti-money laundering law; • verification of supporting documents for transac - tions (existence of requisites, absence of obvious discrepancies); • ensuring traceability of accounting documents received; • actions in case of suspicion – requesting additional explanations or reporting to special authorities; • documenting one’s actions to be able to prove that the minimum due diligence required by law has been observed. 5. Fight against money laundering The fight against money laundering remains a con - stant priority in Latvia also in 2026. These criminal cases in Latvia usually go along with special proceed - ings concerning unlawfully obtained property. On March 14 2025, the ruling in case No. 2022-32- 01 regarding the regulation of proving the origin of property in a process concerning unlawfully obtained property, which has been separated from the criminal proceedings on the legalisation of unlawfully obtained funds, was deemed compliant with the first sentence of Article 92 of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court concluded that the contested regulation estab - lishes a divided burden of proof regarding the origin of property—the prosecution must provide evidence supporting the assumption of the property’s criminal
origin. In contrast, the person associated with the property must provide evidence that the property’s origin is lawful. Furthermore, the person associated with the property is afforded sufficient procedural guarantees to prove the property’s lawful origin. There - fore, the contested regulation ensures a fair balance between the principle of equal opportunity for the par - ties and society’s interest in effectively confiscating unlawfully obtained property. As mentioned above in relation to the Constitutional Court’s decision, many criminal proceedings on the legalisation of unlawfully obtained funds were continued as well as newly initi - ated in 2026. 6. Crypto-assets in money laundering cases Crypto-assets are becoming an increasingly promi - nent feature of Latvian economic crime investigations and related court proceedings. They are no longer treated as an exceptional or purely technical form of property. Still, they are routinely examined as poten - tial instruments, proceeds or objects of fraud, money laundering and other economic offences. Latvian investigative authorities have significantly strengthened their capacity to trace, identify, freeze and seize crypto-assets. Available data illustrates the rapid growth of this practice: the value of virtual cur - rencies subject to seizure in Latvian criminal proceed - ings increased from approximately EUR1.6 million in 2022 to approximately EUR2.5 million in 2024. Recent cases further demonstrate the increasing significance of crypto-assets in economic crime liti - gation. In 2026, a criminal case was referred to the Economic Court concerning the alleged laundering of virtual currency valued at approximately EUR1.5 mil - lion. The alleged scheme involved accounts opened with crypto-asset platforms using third-party identi - ties, transfers between virtual currency wallets and the subsequent conversion of the assets into cash. The case is particularly notable as an example of stan - dalone money laundering, where the precise predicate offence generating the assets had not been identified. Crypto-assets are also increasingly encountered in large-scale fraud investigations. Latvian law enforce - ment authorities have identified illegal crypto-asset exchangers acting as intermediaries between fraud
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