Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov tries to clear himself of any suspicion over links to the criminal underworld.

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The Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov was forced out of Dutch carmaker Spyker, on suspicion of shady dealings, before the group was allowed to take over Swedish-based Saab.

But he now states that the first down payment to General Motors had been financed by his banks, according to a report by news agency Bloomberg.

According to Antonov, GM and the Swedish government are all aware of the source of the money. The claim refers to the first $25 million installment due to GM.

"The first payment has been made available by our banks," Antonov told Bloomberg.

Victor Muller Spyker's CEO doesn’t want to reveal the identity of the lender, and stated that his own firm Tenaci loaned the money to back up the installments.

Spyker's largest shareholder is Vladimir Antonov with almost 30 percent of the shares and his banking arm Convers Group has provided major loans to the debt-ridden sports-car maker.

Vladimir Antonov told Bloomberg that he could not understand GM's thinking. He has launched a self-appointed investigation to clear himself of any suspicion over links to the criminal underworld.

"In response to all this noise in the media we have retaliated by hiring a large and globally renowned investigation agency which has former FBI and CIA agents among its employees," Antonov told Reuters in an interview.

"They are doing a report which will be ready in two to three weeks. The agency is investigating whether the business of (myself) and family has any criminal links and will issue assessments backed by documents in response to all accusations against us."