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Darius Stankevičius, the prosecutor for the attorney general’s office who is leading the investigation, has not been released for some time.
V. Sutkus, brought before the court, did not respond to journalists’ questions about the charges against him. Before leaving the officers’ car, he put a mask on his face and an officer accompanied him to court.
Under the new order, V. Sutkus was not handcuffed, but when he was brought to court, he crossed his arms and covered himself with a jacket.
The president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation was brought before the court by police officers, where the prosecutors’ request would be examined by a pre-trial investigative judge.
V. Sutkus was arrested Tuesday in a large-scale bribery, bribery, influence trade, property waste and forgery documents on Tuesday. Mantas Zalatorius, president of the Lithuanian Bank Association, who was arrested along with him, has already been released. In the near future, the detention door should be opened for 4 more business representatives.
The Special Investigation Service and the Office of the Prosecutor General reported that around 70 searches and seizures were carried out on Tuesday in various parts of Lithuania at the suspect’s homes, workplaces and other places.
The allegations were also made against the CEOs of two private road construction companies, the head of a private consulting and training company and the head of a private information technology company.
The STT reported that the available data allows reasonable suspicions that the President of the Lithuanian Business Confederation V. Sutkus, while serving in the Confederation and representing the interests of its members and other business entities, exercised illegal monetary compensation for its impact. by adopting various important legal acts for commercial entities
According to the investigation, the president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation, V. Sutkus, may have accepted and accepted a bribe from the president of the Lithuanian Association of Banks, M. Zalatorius, for representing V. Sutkus in late 2019 to discuss the 2020 budget package, bank property laws and corporate taxes.
Additionally, based on research data, V. Sutkus may have accepted bribes from managers of private road construction companies. As suspected, V. Sutkus, possibly for illegal remuneration, deliberately organized, compiled, and publicly provided negative biased information, with the aim of undermining the authority, business, and political reputation of then-Minister of Transportation and Communications Rokas Masiulis. In this way, the objective was to eliminate R. Masiulis from the position of Minister of Transport and Communications.
It is also suspected that during the implementation of the EU-funded project of the Lithuanian Business Confederation, V. Sutkus chose a private consulting and training company as a partner of the project, the director of which, acting together with the director of a private technology company of the information, he bribed part of the project. paid in person to V. Sutkus.
Such a criminal scheme is suspected to have existed for a long time.
“The manifestations of simulated lobbying revealed by this pre-trial investigation are the intolerable desire for profit, for personal gain under the guise of existing powers and influence. This situation shows once again that further discussion is necessary, seeking a solution how lobbying activities should be carried out in a transparent way, ”said Žydrūnas Bartkus, Director of STT.
“It is clear that any non-transparent, dubious, or illegal influence on legislative processes, where specific legislation potentially becomes a means to satisfy the interests of certain stakeholders rather than the general public, is a serious threat to well-being The question arises as to whether such action does not cause significant damage to the state budget, or whether it does not unduly increase the tax burden or other financial burden on our citizens. Therefore, after receiving such data, which are currently in the case, we must conduct a thorough investigation and answer all questions that arise regarding the legality of such action, “said Prosecutor General Evaldas Pašilis.
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