Steponavičius is the evil person, who forced Lithuanian students, unable to hire tutors, into slavery for lender banks.
"On
Wednesday, in the MG Baltic political corruption case, the Lithuanian Court of
Appeal announced that both Raimondas Kurlianskis, Eligijus Masiulis, and other
participants in the case were found guilty. The two main heroes of the story,
E. Masiulis and R. Kurlianskis, were sent to prison. All other
defendants were convicted too.
The Court of
Appeal found R. Kurlianskis guilty of bribery and influence peddling. He was
sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, 18.8 thousand. EUR fine, as well as his
right to hold managerial positions in the public and private sectors, in the
means of public information provided for in the Law on Public Information, was
deprived of him for 5 years.
E. Masiulis was
found guilty by the court of bribery, trading in influence and illegal
enrichment. The former leader of the Liberal Movement was sentenced to
imprisonment for 5 years and 6 months, as well as the right was eliminated for him to be elected or
appointed to all positions elected or appointed by state or municipal
institutions, companies or non-governmental organizations for 5 years, and 241
thousand euros was confiscated.
The appellate
court decided to find other persons acquitted earlier in the case as guilty.
Representative of the Labor Party, Member of the Seimas Vytautas Gapšys was
found guilty of bribery and influence peddling. The court sentenced him to 4
years and 6 months of imprisonment, and for 5 years V. Gapšys was deprived of
the right to be elected or appointed to all positions elected or appointed by
state or municipal institutions and institutions, companies or non-governmental
organizations, and it was decided to collect 8 thousand from him. euros.,
Former liberal
Šarūnas Gustainis and former Seimas member Gintaras Steponavičius were also
found guilty. Sh. Gustainis was found guilty of bribery, he was awarded 18.8
thousand. EUR fine, as well as being deprived of the right to be elected or
appointed to all positions elected or appointed by state or municipal
institutions and institutions, companies or non-governmental organizations for
5 years, and it was decided to recover 4.3 thousand from him. euros.
G. Steponavičius
was found guilty by the court of abuse of office. 15 thousand euros fine is allocated to
him and deprivation of the right to be elected or appointed to all
positions elected or appointed by state or municipal institutions and
institutions, companies or non-governmental organizations for 4 years.
The legal persons
in the case who were previously acquitted, found guilty of criminal acts by
the decision of the Court of Appeal. 1.1 million EUR fine was allocated to "MG
Group". 376.6 thousand euros for the Liberal movement. EUR, and the Labor
Party - 300 thousand.
After the
sentencing, prosecutor Justas Laucius said that the court that acquitted the
defendants earlier made gross and fundamental mistakes. However, he was happy
that the judicial instance system is successfully functioning in Lithuania, and
it has corrected mistakes.
"All these
gentlemen who have been indicted are, to put it simply, criminals. And Mr.
Masiulis, Kurlianskis and Gapšys are not just any criminals, but serious ones.
They are recognized as having committed serious crimes of a corrupt nature.
This is not my opinion, it is already a legal fact from the point of view of
the presumption of innocence," said the prosecutor.
Raimondas
Kurlianskis said that he did not expect such a decision, but it must be
implemented. He said he pleaded not guilty.
"I want to
emphasize that this is not a final decision," he said, stressing that he
will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
He said that if
possible, he would go to the prison himself.
This decision can
be appealed to the Supreme Court of Lithuania within three months.
We remind you
that in 2022 in April, by the decision of the Vilnius District Court, Raimondas
Kurlianskis, ex-concern "MG Baltic" (now "MG grupė"),
accused of influence peddling, abuse of official position, bribery, Eligijus
Masiulis, the former head of the Liberal Movement, accused of bribery,
influence peddling, illegal enrichment, ex-parliamentarian Šarūnas accused
of bribery Gustainis, ex-liberal Gintaras Steponavičius, parliamentarian
Vytautas Gapšys accused of influence peddling and bribery, as well as legal
entities - concern "MG Baltic", which has now changed its name to
"MG grupė", Liberalu sajūdis and Labor Party - were acquitted.
Appeals against
the verdict of the court of first instance were filed by Simonas Slapšinskas
and Giedrius Danėlius, the defense attorneys of the acquitted R. Kurlianskis,
Ruslanas Boikos, the defense attorney of the acquitted E. Masiulis, and Justas
Laucius, the chief prosecutor of the Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office.
The lawyers of
the acquitted persons dispute the legality of the intelligence data and request
that it be recognized as invalid. Prosecutor J. Laucius asks the Court of
Appeal to cancel the verdict of the lower instance and to recognize all the
acquitted as guilty and to impose punishments.
R. Kurlianskis,
the former vice president of the MG Baltic concern, is proposed to be found
guilty of bribery, influence peddling, abuse of office, sentenced to 6 years
and 3 months in prison, 22.6 thousand. EUR fine, to be deprived of the right to
work in managerial positions in the public and private sectors for 7 years.
The aim is to
find E. Masiulis guilty of bribery, sentence him to 7 years of imprisonment,
deprive him of the right to be elected or appointed to all positions elected or
appointed by state or municipal institutions and institutions, companies or
non-governmental organizations for 7 years. Also, the prosecutor of the Court
of Appeal requests the confiscation of 242.4 thousand euros from E. Masiulis,
continuing the temporary restriction of ownership rights applied to the
politician's property.
Parliamentarian
V. Gapšys is proposed to be found guilty of bribery, to be sentenced to 5 years
and 3 months in prison, to be deprived of the right to be elected or appointed
to all positions elected or appointed by state or municipal institutions and
institutions, companies or non-governmental organizations for 7 years, as well
as 27.1 thousand euros to be recovered from him in favor of the state.
The prosecutor requests that Former Seimas
member Š. Gustainis to be found guilty of bribery and
that 28.2 thousand EUR fine to be awarded to him, to deprive him of the right to
be elected or appointed to all positions elected or appointed by state or
municipal institutions and institutions, companies or non-governmental
organizations for 5 years, as well as to recover from him 8.7 thousand euros in favor
of the state.
Prosecutor J.
Laucius is asking the court to find former liberal G. Steponavičius guilty of
abuse and award him 17,000. EUR fine, deprive him of the right to be elected or
appointed to all elected or appointed positions of state or municipal
institutions and institutions, companies or non-governmental organizations for
4 years.
The prosecutor is
asking the Court of Appeals to recognize three legal entities previously
acquitted in the case as guilty of corruption. It is proposed to allocate 1.2
mln. a fine of EUR 527,000 for the Liberal movement. a fine of EUR 376.6
thousand for the Labor Party. euro fine.
Vilnius District
Court, 2022 after acquitting the defendants in the case in April, confirmed the
version of E. Masiulis that he in 2016 to hand over 90 thousand euros to a politician
in a box of a vodka bottle was a loan and not a bribe for the operation of a
political party in favor of the MG Baltic concern, as the law enforcement tried
to convince the court.
E. Masiulis
explained that he borrowed money from R. Kurlianskis for investments in real
estate on the seashore, and R. Kurlianskis taught that he supported the
liberal's political activities with the money because he liked this activity.
The law
enforcement previously announced that they had information that E. Masiulis
tried to influence the members of the Liberal Movement in exchange for a bribe
allegedly received from R. Kurlianskis, in order to make decisions favorable to
MG Baltic. Among the projects, which, according to the officials, are of
interest to the concern, about which representatives of "MG Baltic"
allegedly spoke with politicians, are the reconstruction of the Vilnius-Utena
road, radioactive waste management works at the Ignalina nuclear power plant,
amendments to the Law on Consumer Credits, etc.
Law enforcement
assures that R. Kurlianskis allegedly tried to influence the politicians of the
Liberal Movement at that time and regarding the monument to Dr. Jonas
Basanavičius in Vilnius - that it be erected in Konstantinos Širvydas park,
and not next to the Philharmonic, where it stands now.
E. Masiulis was
also accused that, at his request, R. Kurlianskis, the former vice-president of
MG Baltic, met with Antanas Guoga, the then first deputy chairman of the
Liberal Movement, in November 2015. According to law enforcement, R.
Kurlianskis, who used the influence of the head controlling the media,
allegedly demanded that A. Guoga abandon the decision unfavorable to E. Masiulis
to create the faction of "Klestinčios Lietuvos"."
Criminals are still running Lithuania. For example, Mockus, a leader of recently renamed MG Baltic, is not in prison yet.
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