After several years of fighting the board of the Freeport of Ventspils has officially announced its status of a victim in relation to [ex-mayor of Ventspils] Aivars Lembergs’ payments to Ventspils Development Agency, which is known as Lembergs’ «personal piggy bank» that collected finances from municipal institutions, BNN was told by deputy chairman of the Freeport of Ventspils (VBP) Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis.
He said that as a result of those payments the Freeport of Ventspils board suffered a loss of EUR 1 256 397 between 2002 and 2019.
According to Kristovskis: «This means that under Lembergs’ management he had been plundering public finances all these years in parallel to his now infamous criminal case, in which he was declared guilty by a court of first instance a year ago.»
He explains that by announcing its status as a victim, Freeport of Ventspils board «has made it clear that it has suffered significant financial damage».
«The audit performed by us has eliminated any doubts about the illegality of those transactions,» said Kristovksis.
«For years we, the minority deputies of Ventspils City Council, have turned the attention of Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) toward this. In the criminal case KNAB has finally admitted that during his reign over the Freeport of Ventspils, Lembergs had abused his official power for personal gain and that large volumes of public finances had been wasted in the interests of Lembergs and his supporters. Commencement of the criminal procedure indicates that this was done in calculated and cold-blooded manner in parallel to his trial at Riga Regional Court, where he was declared guilty of serious financial crimes and crimes of influence,» said the former opposition deputy of Ventspils City Council.
Criminal procedure Nr.16870000222 was commenced on 11 February 2022 over possible crime covered by Part 3 of Section 179 of the Criminal Law (misappropriation committed on a large scale) and Part 2 of Section 318 (using official position in bad faith for the purpose of acquiring property).
Criminal procedure Nr.16870000222 was commenced in relation to the request submitted by the Freeport of Ventspils board on 7 April 2021: to evaluate the payments performed by the Freeport of Ventspils board to Ventspils Development Agency. On 11 February 2022 KNAB noted that the Freeport of Ventspils board should declare itself a victim and submit a compensation request to cover losses. The board did this.
Kristovskis reminded that for years Lembergs received EUR 100 000 from VAA. This means nearly half of VAA’s income that was pooled from the Freeport of Ventpils board, Ventspils City Council, the municipality’s companies, Ventspils University of Applied Sciences and Ventspils Technical College.
The former city council deputy also turns attention towards the fact that VAA and Lembergs’ managed Ventspils Business Association secure him a pension of nearly seven thousand euros a month. «This means Lembergs receives a pension for public misappropriation of public finances,» said the deputy chairman of Freeport of Ventspils board.
«This criminal procedure has fundamental meaning in further enhancing Latvia’s status as a country ruled by law.»
«Finally it has brought to light the criminal method that was used by state and municipal leaders like Lembergs while in a classical conflict of interests to satisfy their selfish interests to redirect money towards their pocket companies. Those businesses were founded to use them to misappropriate state and municipal finances. In Lembergs’ case the volume of finances reaches millions of euros. This means the state administration and legislators should make the appropriate conclusions and start improving regulations to prevent such cases of abuse of official power in the future,» said the deputy chairman of VBP.
Kristovskis added: «It is symbolical that KNAB’s initiated criminal procedure proves that the sanctions imposed by US OFAC on Aivars Lembergs and VAA in 2019 were justified.»