2024-07-30 13:01:48
Prosecutor of the Kaunas District Prosecutor’s Office Darius Valkavičius also asks the court to deprive the long-time politician of the Alytus district of his public rights – to deprive him of the right to be elected and appointed to positions elected or appointed by state or municipal bodies for five years.
“An elected member of the municipal council is not free to act in his personal interests, he must respect the laws and the Constitution. The circumstances of the case allow us to establish a deliberate violation of the law, since he has held the position of a politician for a long time, the council member is responsible for providing correct information. The accused was responsible for providing the data, the crimes were intentional,” prosecutor D. Valkavičius said during the court session on Tuesday.
The Kaunas District Court examined the criminal case submitted by the prosecutor’s office, in which A. Vrubliauskas is accused of possibly submitting forged documents in 2019-2022 in order to absorb the funds allocated for the activities of a member of the municipal council.
According to the prosecutor’s office, A. Vrubliauskas is accused of the fact that, in the period from June 2019 to December 2022, in order to receive compensation for the expenses allegedly incurred by him as a member of the Alytus District Municipal Council, he allegedly submitted forged financial documents to the municipal administration and fraudulently obtained almost 20 thousand euros. He is accused of falsifying 16 accounts.
The politician, in pursuit of personal financial gain, is accused of systematically falsifying real documents regarding allegedly incurred fuel expenses, although they were related to the expenses of his individual activities.
After receiving suspicions, A. Vrubliauskas suspended his membership in the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) party in January, and he entered the Alytus district council with it in the municipal elections. A. Vrubliauskas served as the mayor of Alytus district from 1997 to 2023. The politician does not admit his guilt, but he compensated the damage to the municipality. Viktoras Preikšas, the lawyer of A. Vrubliauskas, says that the cases of “cheques” have an artificial incriminating tone, they have been criminalized for no reason.
“Despite the fact that Tapin did an important job, I think that the public services took on too much of a role, the legislator should have fixed it. Let’s leave it to the voters to decide whether he is responsible,” said the defender.
ELTA reminds that after publicist Andriis Tapinas initiated an investigation into the absorption of municipal politicians’ funds by “Skaidrinam” and as a result a scandal arose regarding the possible misuse of office funds by politicians, many municipal politicians came under the scrutiny of law enforcement.
Currently, Special Investigations are conducting pre-trial investigations into the possible misuse of funds by 26 municipal council members: the cities of Vilnius, Šiauliai, Panevėžys and Alytus, Utena, Ukmergė, Kretinga, Ignalina, Mažeikių, Šilutė, Jonava, Lazdijai, Pasvali, Prienė, Telšiai, Radviliškis, Joniškis, Tauragė, Zarasai, Akmenė, Kaišiadorii districts and Birštonas, Marijampole, Neringa, Pagėgiai, Druskininkai municipalities.
The prosecutor’s office announced that currently the council members have voluntarily returned 765 thousand to the country’s municipalities. 911 euros to municipal budgets.
2024-07-30 13:01:48