Vladimir Nikolayevich Romanov (, ; born 15 June 1947) is a Russian-Lithuanian businessman. He was chairman of UBIG Investments, which owned a majority of the shares in failed Lithuanian bank Ūkio Bankas. Cash flow from the bank enabled him to stake significant stakes in various sporting clubs, becoming the majority shareholder in both Scottish Premier League football club Hearts and Lithuanian Basketball League club Žalgiris, and taking control of the Lithuanian club FBK Kaunas. The group was the owner of Belarusian Premier League club FC Partizan Minsk before it was sold in March 2012. Early life Romanov spent his early childhood in Tver Oblast in Russia, before moving with his family to Lithuania at the age of nine. His father had served in the Red Army and fought in the Battle of Berlin, but died when Romanov was just 16. This meant that Romanov was forced to support the rest of the family, which he did by driving a taxi and selling Western popular music, including bootleg copies of records by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and The Rolling Stones. He then served in the Soviet Navy for six years, including time aboard the K19 submarine. Romanov later bought the submarine, and invited his fellow crew members to the 2006 Scottish Cup Final. Career Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Romanov had started to make money during the late 1980s through manufacturing. His wealth greatly increased during the early 1990s after state enterprises were sold off to the highest bidder. Romanov was amongst those who founded Ūkio bankas, which was the first private bank to be founded in Lithuania. Through his private investment group UBIG, Romanov had business interests including aluminium, textiles, property and television. These activities are carried out in Lithuania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Russia and Serbia. His wealth has been variously estimated at £260M, £300M, and £200M in the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List. Ūkio Bankas was closed by the Lithuania Central Bank on 12 February 2013 and its 'good' assets transferred to Šiaulių bankas. Investigations continue into allegations of fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering, according to the Bank of Lithuania. Romanov subsequently declared himself insolvent. Sports investments Hearts Hearts, like many other Scottish Premier League clubs, ran into severe financial difficulties during the early part of the 2000s. An assessment by PWC in the autumn of 2003 found that Hearts, along with four other SPL