A Latvian prone to violins

Andris Straumanis | 

Perhaps you have heard the late Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner,” played on electric guitar. But what about Armands Melnbārdis’ rendition of the American national anthem on electric seven-string violin?

Melnbārdis heads up a Daytona Beach, Fla., ensemble called Vio7. We’re not sure how to categorize the sound, except to say that it’s often loud and includes titles like “Day from Hell” and “Sick Dance.”

Vio7’s Web site includes downloadable MP3s of some of the band’s music, including an English version of the super-sad folk song “Gula meitiņa” (read the lyrics at Dziesmas.lv) that is translated as “Love Forever” and sung by fellow Latvian Dace Kamaly. Also available is a video of Melnbārdis performing “Star Spangled Banner.”

Melnbārdis and Vio7 also can be found on MySpace and draugiem.lv.

Thanks to Jānis Bībelnieks for sending us the link!

Armands Melnbārdis

Armands Melnbārdis and his seven-string electric violin head up the Florida ensemble Vio7.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.

Welcome to our music blog!

Andris Straumanis | 

Here is something you see every day: yet another blog. We are introducing Skaņas, a blog about Latvian music, which will serve to capture information that does not always fit into other places on Latvians Online.

Skaņas by no means is the first blog to report on the Latvian music scene. Take a look at the various entries about music on such sites as Blogiem.lv, for example. Nor is Skaņas to compete with Web sites such as Music in Latvia, which especially covers the classical scene in Latvia.

What we will try to do in this space is pass on information that may be of special interest to readers outside Latvia. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t hear of a new compact disc release, a tour by Latvian music artists abroad, formation of a group or ensemble, or other interesting news. Here is where we will report what we learn.

Have news about Latvian music you think would be of interest to our readers? Have suggestions for what we ought to cover? Let us know by editor@latviansonline.com.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.

Court freezes Parex’s U.S. trading account

Andris Straumanis | 

Rīga-based Parex Bank’s USD 3 million trading account in the United States has been frozen under a federal court order in the District of Columbia, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced March 7.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina involves a case filed March 6 by the SEC against Parex and an unknown number of stock traders who are being accused of a “pump and dump” scheme using the Internet to defraud investors of more than USD 732,000.

The SEC claims in court documents that from at least December 2005 to December 2006, one or more stock traders based abroad purchased shares in 15 companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. The purchases allegedly were made through sub-accounts of the trading account controlled by Parex.

“These unknown traders then hacked into unsuspecting investors’ online brokerage accounts at seven major online broker-dealers and sold off investors’ existing securities holdings,” the SEC said in a press release. “They then used the proceeds to buy shares on the open market of the thinly-traded issuers the unknown traders had previously purchased in their own sub-accounts.”

The broker-dealers whose customers’ accounts were hacked into suffered about USD 2 million in losses, according to court documents.

Parex’s trading account is held by Pinnacle Capital Markets, a North Carolina-based broker-dealer, the SEC said in court documents. Opened in 2002, the account has 75 sub-accounts. The trading account has 20 beneficiaries living in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and the British Virgin Islands, the SEC said, but it is unclear who owns the sub-accounts.

The investors whose accounts were hacked into traded through some of the best-known online stock brokers: E*Trade Securities, Scottrade Inc., TD Ameritrade Inc., Vanguard Brokerage Services, Fidelity Investments, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., the SEC said.

No immediate response to the court decision was available from Parex. Founded in 1992, Parex is one of Latvia’s largest banks.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.