Latvian prosecutor’s office has requested Britain to provide additional information regarding the sanctions imposed on Līga Lemberga – daughter of infamous ex-Mayor of Ventspils Aivars Lembergs.
Ieva Šomina, representative of the Latvian prosecutor’s office, told LETA that the office has studied the publicly available information and will continue following developments as the come. If it turns out Latvian citizens committed criminal acts in foreign countries, the decision will be made on the commencement of criminal proceedings.
At the same time, this information will be discussed with other investigative institutions.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed there are no ongoing criminal proceedings against Līga Lemberga at the moment.
As previously reported, at the end of November, Britain imposed sanctions against eight persons – citizens of different countries accused of international corruption. Aivars Lembergs and his daughter Līga are among those people.
According to the statement from the British government, Lembergs is or was previously involved in acts of corruption. Specifically, Lembergs, during his term as Mayor of Ventspils, had been responsible for serious corruption or had been involved in serious corruption in the form of bribery and embezzlement, the statement mentioned.
Lembergs’ daughter Līga has promoted or supported serious corruption, as well as benefited financially or benefited in some other form from serious corruption. In particular, Lemberg has been involved in the bribery and embezzlement committed by her father, Aivars Lembergs, the statement added.
The sanctions imposed on them include freezing of assets and travel restrictions.
Sanctions were also imposed on Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash and his wife Lada Firtash, as well as Angolan and Russian citizen, billionaire Isabel dos Santos.
The British Foreign Office called Firtash, Lembergs and Santos “three notorious kleptocrats” and accused them of “stealing the wealth of their countries for personal profit”.
Ex-Mayor of Ventpsils Aivars Lembergs (For Latvia and Ventspils) has appealed the verdict that sentenced him to four years in prison and confiscation of property.
A cassation protest from the prosecutor and a total of 15 cassation complaints, including from one accused person, five defence attorneys, one victim and five representatives of the owners of the damaged property, have been received in relation to the verdict from Riga Regional Court last year.
Riga Regional Court as the appeal instance court declared Lembergs guilty of several episodes of crimes of corruption. Lembergs’ prison sentence was shortened by one year.
The court decided to sentence him to four years in prison with confiscation of owned property. In prison, the appellate court, like the first instance, decided to include Lembergs’ detention and time spent under house arrest to his overall sentence.
The time spent under arrest from the 14th of March, 2007 to the 10th of July, 2007, and from the 22nd of February, 2021 to the 25th of February, 2022, as well as the time spent under house arrest from the 10th of July, 2007 to the 22nd of February, 2008, were included in the sentence. This means that Lembergs spent a total of about 700 days in prison and under house arrest.
If the verdict comes into force, Lembergs will have to spend approximately half of his actual sentence in prison. On top of that, he will also have the right for a conditional early release.
It is also worth mentioning that Lembergs also received acquittal in multiple criminal charges against him.
Lembergs’ son Anrijs Lembergs, too, received a reduced sentence – one year and 11 months in prison. Like his father, Anrijs Lembergs received confiscation of property.
Aivars Lembergs’ one-time business partner Ansis Sormulis was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison. Like Anrijs and Aivars Lembergs, Sormulis received confiscation of property on top of the prison sentence.
Riga Regional Court started reviewing the case in 2009.