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Relatives and friends of R.Stonis, owner of the Kaunas Cogeneration Plant, who became a suspect in the VAT theft case and spent two days in custody, do not understand how a 67-year-old businessman could get involved in such a story. .
“He is very careful, checking all the people, scared and not approaching the bandits, and here he suddenly took over and faced some convicted repeat offender many times. Complete nonsense, “said a person close to R. Stepius to Lietuvos Rytas.
He describes Mindaugas Žalimas as a repeat offender, who is appointed by the Financial Crimes Investigation Service (FNTT) and the Prosecutor’s Office as an organizer of crimes that are also related to the finances of the Kaunas Cogeneration Plant.
Yolk in the bank
M. Žalimas has been known to law enforcement officials since 1994. He spent several years in prisons, convicted of large-scale value-added tax (VAT) fraud in the trade in metal, wood, building materials and petroleum products. .
In 2011, the Klaipėda District Court ordered M. Žalimas to pay almost 2 million euros to the state and sentenced him to 11 years and 6 months in prison, but already in 2016 the scammers were released and soon arrested again for the same crimes .
In 2017, M. Žalimas appeared in court for the thirteenth time, but it paid off with a suspended sentence.
The Akmenė District Court sentenced him to four years in prison for fraudulent use of forged invoices and misappropriation of € 53,000 in VAT, but stayed his execution.
This week, M. Žalimas got stuck, along with him and four other people, including R.Stonys.
Reminiscent of a famous story
The former director of Dujotekana R.Stonys is the only one the prosecution did not ask to arrest. After writing a promise not to leave and pledging not to interact with certain people, he was released home on Thursday. The court allowed Žalimas to be arrested for two weeks.
The fact that the detention period is so short also casts doubt on R. Stton’s relatives.
“There are very bad thoughts that black things are happening, that certain forces are at work,” said the businessman’s relative, who suggested that the lawsuit against the millionaire was similar to the story of the late businessman Raimondas Karpavičius, when the widow learned of that she was no longer a wife, and all the property they lived together went to Aiste Grybauskienė from Kaunas and the businessman’s brother, with whom she had almost no contact.
“The same mechanisms, the same schemes as with R. Karpavičius”, said the relative of R. Stonis, but did not want to speak more specifically until the whole situation was discussed in the circle of relatives.
No crimes were seen in the case
While the relatives wonder who decided to negotiate with the businessman, whose assets were valued at 70 million euros in 2019, Darius Raulušaitis, R. Stonis’s lawyer, who knows the file, is convinced that the businessman’s arrest is just a misunderstanding . .
According to him, the case concerns the purchases of the Kaunas cogeneration plant, the purchase and sale of oil and diesel, but the role of R. Stonis in these operations is not clear to him: “He is only a shareholder, not a direct manager of the plant. “
Did you buy it yourself?
What is the role of R. Stton in the pre-trial investigation because, according to the prosecution, some 1.1 million euros of VAT not paid to the state budget in the last seven months? Researchers are reluctant to speak.
Kaunas Chief District Prosecutor Darius Valkavičius said the investigation was being carried out due to large-scale value-added tax fraud and fraudulent accounting last fall and this winter.
Five suspects are alleged to have established a mechanism for criminal activity and fraud in an attempt to evade the VAT.
“Diesel and excise duties are paid when diesel is sold. To prevent this, they set up an oil trading scheme between bogus companies run by members of an organized group.
The oil was sold abroad, after which the same oil was bought back through bogus companies.
The VAT payable in this way was transferred to fictitious companies, and the main company received an overpayment of VAT, which was used to cover the tax derived from the diesel trade ”, explained Rolandas Urbonas, head of the Regional Board of FNTT Kaunas.
R.Stonis’s lawyer, D. Raulušaitis, believes that if such a scheme existed, his client probably did not know anything about it, because he was not directly involved in these transactions.
“There is no data that he would have known,” said D. Raulušaitis after familiarizing himself with the material from the pre-trial investigation, emphasizing that the fuel was purchased at the power plant only legally, since it actually operated, it was recorded and paid taxes. Business.
According to him, this is proven with documents, both issued invoices and bank transfers.
