Originally Posted by CarlosTheGaucho

They thought that the "free market" will work in a country full of thieves, of course they lost billions of $ during the first four or five years after the break of the iron curtain, then many of those banks went bankrupt and government bailed out the creditors.
Those who got loans and made it in a smart way never paid anything back,
The USUAL SCHEME was to start about 10 companies registered on some kind of an idiot that you paid like 500 $ a month to double his income, provide about 10 fake business plans, bribe a specialist to get you an overpriced quote on any real estate or anything you "planned" to purchase / renovate / build and add something fake as a warranty (usually something that doesn't exist or that you don't own or has no value).
After you cash out those 10 loans and stop paying back, banks will find idiots sitting in a village in the ass of the world that not even know they own a company that is buried in debt.
There are also other schemes.
I know personally a guy who made about 50 million $ in cash on fake loans, he's dead now.
You could see idiots in trainers driving MB S-Classe all over the place, red suits and all kinds of funny things, I use to tell many of those stories when I share a beer with the west.