Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Technology, Telecomunications

Andrejs Ekis.

A court representative said that, following a prosecutor's request, the court ordered arrest of Ekis' shares in the joint-stock company Neatkarigie nacionalie mediji  (NNM), which last week bought out LNT and TV5 from media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

According to the Register of Enterprises' data, the share capital of NNM is LVL 25,000, and Ekis is the sole owner of the company.

As reported, the so-called "digital television affair" involves the state-owned company Digitalais Latvijas radio un televizijas centrs (Digital Latvian Radio and Television Center) and the company Kempmayer Media Latvia, which had reached agreement on introduction of digital television in Latvia and the provision of specific equipment necessary for digital broadcasting, with the project's costs estimated at dozens of millions of lats.

20 persons have been charged in the case altogether. Ekis has been charged in accordance with the Criminal Law's Section 20 Part 2 and Section 177 Part 3 – fraud by a group of persons pursuant to prior agreement Ekis pleads not guilty.

Another defendant in the case, Jurgis Liepnieks, former head of the People's Party leader Andris Skele's bureau, previously said in an interview with the newspaper Dienas Bizness that Kempmayer Media Latvia had been established by Ekis, and Skele was later involved in the scheme via offshore companies. Ekis and Skele deny this.