““Delfi” interviewed blogger and former advisor to Prime
Minister Saulius Skvernelis Skirmantas Malinauskas, who described what the
scheme could have looked like, related to the State Plant Service and suspected
systemic corruption in this institution. According to him, the scheme was
intended to allow drugs, for example, to travel through Lithuania to third
countries.
S. Malinauskas also considered how S. Skvernelis and
parliamentarian, Seimas conservative Kazys Starkevičius, could be connected to
the suspected corruption. According to the interviewee, the searches in their
offices in the parliament and at home were not carried out randomly and were
certainly not without reason.
The Prosecutor's Office announced at the end of last year
that the Special Investigation Service (STT) is conducting a large-scale
pre-trial investigation into suspected corruption by the heads, employees and
other persons of the State Plant Service under the Ministry of Agriculture, who
may have acted in an organized group.
According to the investigation, large bribes were
systematically demanded and received from representatives of companies
transporting plants and plant products for phytosanitary certificates issued by
the Plant Service to transporters of such cargo.
Law enforcement suspects that the total amount of bribes
could have reached 1.5 million euros.
They say that flowers were transported, but apparently not
only them
At first glance, according to S. Malinauskas, it would seem
that the State Plant Service is an unremarkable institution. However, as he
noted, this service performs one important and relevant function in the
investigation into corruption.
“This is a service that would seem to be nothing special,
nothing special <...>. And this is a service through which permits were
obtained to cross the territory of Lithuania [in order to] transport certain
plant products.
In this case, it was flowers, for example, from the
Netherlands, which is the flower capital of the world, to, for example,
Russia,” the blogger commented.
He drew attention to the fact that the Plant Service was
headed by Yuri Kornienko, who previously held the position of temporary
chancellor of the Ministry of Agriculture, headed the Corruption Prevention and
Internal Investigations Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. Now he has
been charged with bribery while acting in an organized group.
It was announced that during searches related to the Plant
Service and suspected corruption, more than 1 million 300 thousand were found
in places relevant to the investigation, as well as with the suspects. EUR 1
million in cash and about 8 kg of gold, worth about EUR 1 million, more than 11
thousand packs of cigarettes, almost 14 thousand liters of alcohol without
Lithuanian stamps and, as suspected, narcotics (cocaine) and explosives.
“It is obvious that we are talking about an organized
criminal group that also had weapons at its disposal, and about criminal
connections with civil servants and individuals, politicians who are close to
the most influential politicians, for example, party leaders,” said S.
Malinauskas.
Agnė Silickienė, a former advisor to the Plant Protection
Service, who was suspected of bribery, worked closely with the leader of the
Democratic Union “For the Name of Lithuania”, former Prime Minister and former
Speaker of the Seimas S. Skvernelis.
“She always held positions that were high in terms of civil
service, law enforcement, worked on issues related to law, security. And, yes,
it was exploited,” the blogger assessed.
Bribes as in the “good old days”
He described what kind of corruption scheme related to the
Plant Protection Service could operate, and assessed that not only flowers, but
also, for example, narcotics were transported through Lithuania to third
countries.
“There was an elementary corruption scheme: those
individuals were supposed to check perishable flower shipments, make sure that
everything was fine, and issue them permits to quickly cross the territory of
Lithuania, because there is only transit traffic here. And suddenly she (the
service – “Delfi”) herself essentially becomes an accomplice or a tool of
criminals, because she turns a blind eye to what was being transported there.
Basically, bribes were paid in the same way as they were
paid in the good old days when Lithuania regained its independence, so that you
could transport cigarette contraband into Lithuania by trucks - now that
practically doesn't exist anymore. And here we see that it was used, of course,
not to transport contraband cigarettes, but in flowers you can hide, for
example, the same drugs.
It's difficult for dogs to work, to smell them and so on.
Especially since such cargoes, when inspected and issued permits by one
institution, are not represented in the general queues later, because those
flowers would simply spoil,” commented S. Malinauskas.
Emphasizes that bribes are large
He assumed or even concluded that such large sums of money
and gold would not figure in the investigation if only flowers were
transported.
“It goes without saying that if businessmen from the
Netherlands transported only flowers and all Lithuanian officials agreed here,
it would probably not be worth giving large bribes. Secondly, we would not see
people from organized crime here who have weapons. We wouldn't hear any drugs
or anything like that.
And now we have a situation where people who are in the
criminal world used this channel, and they agreed that the same flowers could
travel without any problems <...>. And considering what kind of people
[acted] and what items were seized during the searches, it is obvious that
contraband could also be transported in those flowers using this channel
<...>.
Try to imagine, if well-packaged drugs of chemical origin
are hidden somewhere in a shipment of flowers, it becomes very difficult to
find them there. And especially when those who should be searching have
essentially received bribes, turned a blind eye and let that cargo pass without
any problems. "It was used as a channel to transport contraband,"
continued S. Malinauskas.
What are Skvernelis and Starkevičius up to?
On Monday, it emerged that the STT had carried out searches
in the offices of conservative MPs, former Minister of Agriculture K.
Starkevičius, and the leader of the Democratic faction "For the sake of
Lithuania" S. Skvernelis in the Seimas and at home.
S. Malinauskas, former advisor to Prime Minister S.
Skvernelis, assessed what connections these politicians could have with the
ongoing pre-trial investigation.
“K. Starkevičius appointed the then head J. Kornijenko to
the position of head of the Plant Production Service. As I mentioned, J.
Kornijenko was briefly the Chancellor of the Ministry of Agriculture under A.
Palionis, and later headed the prevention department, which is essentially
responsible for the fight against corruption. At that time, K. Starkevičius
appointed him to the Plant Production Service from this position,” noted S.
Malinauskas.
He considered, and perhaps K. Starkevičius’s decision to
appoint J. Kornijenko as head of the service was expedient.
“Perhaps, such an appointment was discussed with the same K.
Starkevičius, perhaps, after he appointed J. Kornijenko and headed the Ministry
of Agriculture <...>, he was handling some issues,” S. Malinauskas listed
possible options.
According to him, S. Skvernelis’ connection with the
pre-trial investigation could be through A. Silickienė.
"She was an advisor to J. Korniyenko, and in the party
she was an advisor to S. Skvernelis on legal issues, and was also delegated to
the Central Election Commission. And, as I understand it, an influential woman
close to him (S. Skvernelis - "Delfi"). This raises questions,
perhaps there was also some kind of connection, perhaps corruption
matters," said S. Malinauskas.
He is convinced that law enforcement had a serious reason to
charge Seimas members K. Starkevičius and S. Skvernelis, otherwise they would
not have done it without reason.
"It is likely that this is not just pointing a finger
at the sky. There should really be a serious reason. Perhaps there were some
kind of corruption agreements, perhaps there was some kind of connection. We
have always known that if there is big money, then perhaps part of that money
can reach politicians and the like," said S. Malinauskas.
He speculated that the searches in the offices of Seimas
members could also be related to the fact that one of the suspects in the Plant
Breeding Service case spoke out.
"Perhaps, the suspects gave their statements, because
it's one thing when you are facing probation and you are being punished for the
first time for a corruption crime. And it's a completely different thing when
you are in a group that is armed and the sanction provided for by the Criminal
Code is life imprisonment. Of course, they won't get that much. But if you are
really trying to sit down <...>, then maybe people will start cooperating
with law enforcement, giving statements in order to save their own skin. And
then the question is what they can say," the blogger said.
He claims that the searches are a blow to politicians
The mere fact that searches were conducted against
politicians, according to S. Malinauskas, is a blow to them.
"Searches are enough to ruin a politician's reputation.
If a person's house is searched, that's it. Whoever he is, and especially if
he's a politician, especially if he's a former commissioner general, police
chief. In this place, no one will really find out all the details and
immediately draw conclusions. Trust will fall.
That's why I think that both the Prosecutor General's Office
and the STT could not easily go to court - the court should have sanctioned
these searches," the blogger noted, and assured that he was convinced that
"if there was absolutely nothing there, or some false testimony, or an
attempt to fish, to find something," then no searches would be carried
out.
Later, after the searches on Monday, Prosecutor General's
Office Prosecutor Artūras Urbelis indicated that, during the pre-trial
investigation into possible corruption in the State Plant Service, it was
decided to question Seimas members S. Skvernelis and K. Starkevičius as special
witnesses.
At that time, S. Skvernelis insisted that he had done nothing
criminal and said that he was calm, and that the services, as the politician
noted, were carrying out their actions.
K. Starkevičius also commented that he was calm. He promised
to comment on the situation in more detail in the future.”
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