Last week, the Court of Economic Affairs continued to consider the criminal case regarding possible tax evasion and money laundering related to SIA Amber concert hall purchase of chairs. In the so-called criminal case of the purchase of the chairs of the Dzintari concert hall, the accusers Kristine Kravtsova, Denis Pilkevič and Vladimir Filippov can face up to ten years in prison. On the other hand, the mayor of Jūrmala, Gatis Truksnis, appears in this case as one of the witnesses who did not come to the court session to testify, because he did not know about it.
Two witnesses do not appear
K. Kravcova is accused in this case under the third part of Article 177 of the Criminal Law (fraud on a large scale or in an organized group, or by obtaining narcotic substances, weapons, ammunition, explosives) and under the third part of Article 195 of the Criminal Law (legalization of proceeds of crime on a large scale or in an organized group) ). D. Pilkēvičs is accused according to the third part of Article 318 of the Criminal Law (abuse of official position, if it has caused serious consequences) and the third part of Article 177. On the other hand, V. Filippov is accused according to the third part of Article 177 of the Criminal Law.
At the court hearing on August 13, two witnesses in this criminal case were questioned, including a representative of the logistics company that provided the cargo transportation, who was working at that company at the time.
Only two of the four invited witnesses had come to the court session, but two had not come to the court for unknown reasons and had not provided the court with any information about the reasons for their absence. After Days according to available information, one of the invited witnesses is the former mayor of Jūrmala, Gatis Truksnis, who did not attend the court hearing. Called by phone, G.
Desolation For days expressed that he had no information about the appearance in court. “It’s the first time I’ve heard that I’ve been invited somewhere. I haven’t received any summons, nothing. It’s news from you that I’ve been invited. I’ve had no news that I’ve been invited. It’s the first time I’ve heard,” he emphasized.
On the other hand, when asked if he had been invited to testify during the pre-trial investigation, the former mayor of Jūrmala confirmed it. “Investigators came and we talked. It seems that two people came, I don’t remember, investigators or what. They asked something, but mostly… we talked for two hours, but almost nothing. (..) What can I do there know,” said G. Truksnis, once again stating that he had no information about the invitation to the court session.
How For days court representatives stated, “to the court hearing [13. augustā] four witnesses were called, two of whom did not appear at the hearing. These witnesses were called to the hearing for the first time, the court has no information about the reasons, because [liecinieki] did not contact the court, nor were they informed about the reasons for non-appearance, therefore the court left open the question of recognizing the reasons for the non-appearance of witnesses as not/excused.” Most likely, this means that the decision on applying (or not applying) a possible punishment to witnesses who did not appear, the court will accept after receiving the explanations of the two witnesses on the reasons for the non-appearance.
The next court hearing is scheduled for November 19 this year, where the interrogation of witnesses will continue.
Accusation of the events of 2015
In this criminal case, it is about SIA in 2015 Amber concert hall chair procurement for the purchase of 516 chairs. This procurement was won by a company registered in Estonia Tooner master, despite the fact that two other bidders in this procurement had submitted a bid that was approximately half the price of Tooner master offer.
According to publicly available information, the mentioned chairs were originally bought by the company Amber X (currently no information is available on where this company is registered) from a US company (no specific company was mentioned at the hearing) and then with Tooner master sold to Dzintari concert hall through mediation.
At the previous court session, four witnesses (former and current employees of Dzintari Concert Hall) were questioned throughout the session – Ieva Studente, Sandris Ansfelds, Kristīne Kalniņa and Inese Strazdovska.
In 2015, the accused D. Pilkēvičs was the technical director of the Dzintari concert hall and the chairman of the Procurement Commission (state official), while K. Kravcova worked in the company Amber X.
In essence, D. Pilkēvič is accused of having, by abusing his official position, defrauded money from the Dzintari concert hall during the procurement organized by his spouse K. Kravtsova (basically, the result of the procurement was negotiated and planned so that the winner would win Tooner master).
From the testimony given by Sandra Ansfeld (Head of the Administration Department of the Dzintari Concert Hall), it could be understood that K. Kravtsova’s involvement in the mentioned activities was also related to the fact that she had prepared the purchase offer documents from Tooner master parties.
On the other hand, there was no information about K. Kravtsova’s part of the charges regarding money laundering at the court hearing, but information about this case and the possible money laundering activities has already been published in the media, from which it can be understood that soon after the Dzintari concert hall bought the chairs from Tooner master, company Amber X Bought a new car in Italy Lexus RX450H, which was used by K. Kravcova herself.
It has already been announced that officials of the Tax and Customs Police Department (NMPP) of the State Revenue Service carried out procedural actions in July 2020 in the Dzintari concert hall in connection with the tax fraud scheme. By carrying out a series of investigative and operational activities, it was established that a criminal group carried out illegal activities in the delivery of chairs to the concert hall. The company made a fictitious delivery of chairs to a foreign company, which in turn delivered the chairs to the customer – a concert hall – as a result of a public procurement tender.
The company declared value added tax (VAT) at a rate of 0%, instead of 21%, as would be the case if the chairs were delivered to a Latvian business partner. The mentioned fact indicates that the transaction has a fictitious nature in order to avoid the payment of taxes, as well as to hide the relationship between the tenderer and the real supplier of the goods. The company purchased Lexus RX cars with allegedly proceeds of crime in a sham transaction.
In the initiated criminal proceedings, NMPP officers conducted six searches in the residences, vehicles and offices of the persons involved in the criminal proceedings. During the searches, evidence important to the criminal process was found and removed. Three persons were detained.
2024-08-21 22:07:30