A lawyer representing Lithuania's MG Baltic business group told a Vilnius court on Monday that Raimondas Kurlianskis, accused of bribery, never represented the company.
MG Baltic EN
220 straipsnių
MG Baltic – 2000 m. įkurta įmonių grupė, priklausanti Dariui Mockui.
Raimondas Kurlianskis, a former vice-president of MG Baltic, one of Lithuania's biggest business groups, told a Vilnius court on Monday that he had given 90,000 euros to Eligijus Masiulis, a former leader of the Liberal Movement, as a loan, not as a bribe.
Raimondas Kurlianskis, a former vice-president of MG Baltic, one of Lithuania's biggest business groups, said that businesses had been "demonized" and "artificially criminalized" as he gave testimony in a major political corruption trial on Monday.
The former and incumbent members of the parliament and representatives of political parties, standing trial in a political corruption case in Lithuania, do not plead guilty but they all agree to testify in court.
Prosecutors began to read out the indictment in a major political corruption case involving MG Baltic, one of Lithuania's largest business groups, and two political parties at the Vilnius Regional Court on Tuesday.
Eligijus Masiulis, a former Liberal Movement leader on trial in a major political corruption case, has failed to recover cash that was found and seized during searches of his home.
The Lithuanian Liberal Movement will continue efforts to prove that information in a State Security Department (VSD) report about MG Baltic's influence on it is untrue after the party and the intelligence agency failed to reach an amicable agreement during a preliminary court hearing on Monday.
The chairman of the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS) registered on Thursday a draft Seimas resolution that calls for a new parliamentary investigation into unlawful influence on political processes during the tenure of two previous governments.
MG Baltic Media, a media and telecoms group indirectly owned by Lithuanian businessman Darius Mockus, last year saw its consolidated revenue drop to 57.871 million euros, down 12.1 percent from 65.858 million euros in 2016.
MP Mantas Adomėnas has left the political group of the opposition Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats in the Seimas following his expulsion from the conservative party.
If general elections were held in Lithuania now, the opposition Liberal Movement would fail to cross the minimum barrier stipulated by the law, a new survey shows.
A Vilnius court on Friday prohibited Vytautas Bakas, chairman of the Lithuanian parliament's Committee on National Security and Defense (NSGK), from calling MG Baltic, one of the country's largest business groups, as "an organized criminal group".
The ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union's (LVŽS) political group in the Seimas has decided to initiate a new parliamentary investigation into links between politics and business as a follow-up to a probe conducted the Committee on National Security and Defense (NSGK).
Lithuanian lawmakers propose banning persons who have been convicted for corruption from any election for ten years.
Justas Laucius, the prosecutor representing the state in the MG Baltic political corruption case, has asked Vilnius Regional Court to extend the property rights restriction for Eligijus Masiulis, one of the defendants in the case, to use the 242,400 euros that were found at his home during a search.
Vilnius Regional Court judges has decided not to recuse from hearing the MG Baltic political corruption case. A call for prosecutor Justas Laucius to recuse has also been rejected.
Lawmaker Mantas Adomėnas has been expelled from the opposition conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) for his ties with the MG Baltic business group.