The Special Investigation Service (STT) is conducting a large-scale pre-trial investigation into suspected corruption offences involving senior officials and employees of the State Plant Service under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania (State Plant Service), as well as other individuals who are suspected of having acted as part of an organised group. The investigation is being led by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to the information currently available in the pre-trial investigation, representatives of companies transporting plants and plant products were allegedly systematically solicited for and required to pay high-value bribes in exchange for phytosanitary certificates issued by the State Plant Service for such consignments. The total amount of bribes is suspected to have reached EUR 1.5 million.
Suspicions of bribery committed as part of an organised group have currently been brought against the Director of the State Plant Service, Jurij Kornijenko; his deputy, Mantas Butas; State Plant Service advisers Aurelijus Šapranauskas and Agnė Silickienė; the Acting Head of the State Plant Service’s Kaunas Regional Division, Dalė Šubonienė; and the Head of its Alytus Regional Division, Giedrius Urbelionis.
Seven executives of private companies and associated individuals have also been formally notified of suspicions of bribery, giving bribes and trading in influence while acting as part of an organised group.
Last week and this week, STT officers carried out planned procedural actions in Vilnius, Kaunas, Utena and Alytus counties, involving more than 120 STT officers.
More than 100 searches were conducted at locations relevant to the investigation. During the searches, more than EUR 1.3 million in cash and approximately 8 kg of gold, valued at around EUR 1 million, were found.
The searches of the suspects’ premises also uncovered a large quantity of excise goods, including more than 11,000 packs of cigarettes, nearly 14,000 litres of alcohol without Lithuanian excise stamps, as well as substances suspected to be narcotics and suspected explosives.
At present, six suspects have been remanded in custody for periods ranging from one to two months. Other suspects have been subjected to intensive supervision or ordered to provide a written undertaking not to leave their place of residence, with their documents seized.
Prosecutors from the Prosecutor General’s Office, as well as officers and specialists from the Financial Crime Investigation Service, the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, the ARAS Unit and the Vilnius County Police Headquarters, participated alongside STT officers in carrying out and organising the procedural actions.
The pre-trial investigation was launched on the basis of information obtained during a successful criminal intelligence operation conducted by the Special Investigation Service.
The pre-trial investigation is being supervised and led by the Department for Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
In accordance with the presumption of innocence, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedure established by law and convicted by a final court judgment.
