After nearly nine-years-long court process the so-called Daimler bribery case may conclude with a deal – conditional prison sentence and partial confiscation of property. This option is available if the accused agree to pay back approximately EUR 1.5 million, as reported by prosecutor Māris Leja.
A while ago defence attorneys of the accused proposed to the prosecutor to make a deal on the penalty. None of the accused admit their guilt. The law allows deals to be made if the accused agrees with the scope and legal qualification of the alleged criminal offence and admits his or her guilt in full.
After considering the offer, the prosecutor concluded the deal is possible if the accused pay approximately EUR 1.5 million to the state budget. This is part of the amount of the bribes and illegally obtained funds listed in the criminal case. This amount was calculated because, first of all, it was found out during the trial that part of the charges were previously reviewed by a court of law in Germany, which means it is not possible to put people on trial again for the same crimes and enforce compensation.
Secondly, existing Latvian legislation does not allow enforcing repayments from bribes paid before the 1st of October 2005.
The next hearing is scheduled for the 31st of January 2023. If the accused complete the aforementioned conditions by then, the prosecutor will request signing a deal with the accused.
Among the accused in this criminal case are people like former advisor to once the Mayor of Riga Gundars Bojārs, once the vice-chairman of the council of Rīgas satiksme LLC Leonards Tenis, businessman Armands Zeihmanis and his wife Vita Zeihmane, director of a Sweden-based company Raimonds Krastiņš, as well as Agris Koroševskis and Sergejs Zambers. The case is focused on crimes of bribery and money laundering.
The prosecution office submitted the case to the court in summer of 2013. According to the prosecution, the accused paid officials bribes worth more than EUR 5 million. One of the accused is believed to have misappropriated up to EUR 1 million, which was intended as a bribe for a different state official.
The Daimler bribery case is one of the biggest criminal procedures headed by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB).
The criminal process in Latvia was commenced over suspicions of Daimler subsidiary Evo Bus officials had unjustifiably increased prices and had illegally acquired funds to be given as bribes to state officials in the period between 2002 and 2006 to ensure procurement of 117 Mercedez Benz buses.