Energy, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation

The Corruption Prevention Bureau has opened a criminal case against the Latvenergo officials, who are suspected of abuse of office, accepting bribes and money laundering in the period from 2006 to 2010, Vitenburgs said.

The case was launched on June 14, and the arrests were made yesterday, June 15.

The Economy Ministry's State Secretary Juris Puce told the business portal Nozare.lv that the Economy Ministry was currently not planning any replacements for the detained Latvenergo officials, because these arrests will not affect the group's operations in any way.

The Economy Ministry does not plan to request more information from the Corruption Prevention Bureau for the time being, Puce added.

He also said that the five Latvenergo executives had been detained for a period of 48 hours, after which more information about the case would probably be released.

According to LETA files, Liuziniks in 1995 was a defendant in the so-called Latvenergo "missing three million" affair. He was acquitted by the Riga Regional Court in October 2004, but one year later the Supreme Court overturned the ruling – Liuziniks was convicted and ordered to pay a fine of 25 minimum monthly wages.

The criminal case dealt with an LVL 10 million loan, underwritten by Latvenergo, that the company Finansu norekinu centrs borrowed from Banka Baltija. The company was ruled insolvent but was unable to return the money, and Latvenergo became indebted to Banka Baltija.

As LETA previously reported, searches were made yesterday of the offices of Mikelsons and his deputy Aigars Melko. A representative of the Economy Ministry, which oversees the activity of Latvenergo, was also invited to observe the searches.

According to unofficial information in LETA's possession, the Corruption Prevention Bureau conducted the searches in connection with the second round of the reconstruction of the Riga 2nd Cogeneration Plant.