Today, after having partially dismissed the appeals, the Court of Appeal of Lithuania maintained the effect of the judgment of the court of first instance, which found the Political Party “Order and Justice”, currently undergoing liquidation, and five natural persons guilty of trading in influence and of other corruption crimes. The fine of 112 thousand euros, that was imposed on the party, was upheld, and the assets belonging to the party, worth more than 279 thousand euros, were confiscated.
The court has found that Rimas Antanas Ručys, the then Executive Secretary of the party “Order and Justice”, who held the management position in the party, remains guilty of trading in influence, fraudulent accounting, and asset embezzlement, forgery of document and disposition of a forged document. The court maintained the effect of the 4-year prison sentence, that was imposed on him, and has postponed serving the sentence for 2 years.
The entrepreneurs Peisachas Kačerginskis and Giedrius Rakauskas remain to be found guilty of trading in influence, asset embezzlement, forgery of document and disposition of a forged document, and Vytautas Banys ir Justinas Garliauskas remain to be found guilty of asset embezzlement, forgery of document and disposition of a forged document. The sentences of imprisonment imposed on them were changed after they were acquitted of fraudulent accounting, and sentences from 2 years and 6 months to 3 years were imposed on them by postponing the service of the sentences imposed. The conditionally sentenced persons will also have to pay contributions of 753 euros each to the Fund of crime victims.
The Political Party “Order and Justice” remains guilty of that, in acting through its representative, has promised and agreed with P. Kačerginskis and G. Rakauskas to accept a bribe from them and promised to influence in return the civil servants of the Ministry of the Interior so that they would help the specified companies to win public contracts during the procurements organised by the Department of Property Management and Economy under the Ministry of the Interior and by one State Enterprise. The party publicity services were paid for after transferring funds on the instructions of these private persons based on forged documents to the accounts of the companies managed by another person. This way, a bribe worth 519,839 litas (150,555 euros) in total was accepted for the benefit of the party and in its interests.
The said political party, that is undergoing liquidation, also remains guilty of that it has incited V. Banys, by acting through its representative, to use the documents, which were known to be false, and transfer funds to the account of the company managed by another person in order to pay for the publicity services, that were provided to the party, and thereby waste the high value assets of the company worth a total of 484,000 litas (140,176 euros).
This pre-trial investigation was completed and transferred for examination in court on 25 October 2018. The criminal case file consisted of 166 volumes or of more than 30 thousand documents. The pre-trial investigation was organised and controlled by the prosecutors of the Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of the General Prosecutor's Office. The public prosecution before the court was represented by the prosecutors of the General Prosecutor's Office and of the Panevėžys District Prosecutor's Office, and the pre-trial investigation was carried out by Vilnius Board of the Special Investigation Service (now the Central Board of Investigation).
The judgement of the appeal court has become final. The decision may be the subject of an appeal in cassation.
