Valērijs Kargins or Valery Mikhailovich Kargin (Russian: Вале́рий Миха́йлович Каргин; born March 27, 1961, in Riga) is a Latvian economist and banker was the president of Parex Banka, from 1998 to 2008. In October 2000, he and had accumulated over 200 million lats together. He created the first travel agency and the first currency exchange corporation in the Soviet Union.