BB.lv: The case about land close to the airport: the customer can also be punished

Two years in the past, in April 2022, land plots close to Riga Airport had been bought at public sale. They had been acquired by a Lithuanian developer (from the ME Holding NT holding), paying 5.7 million euros for it. She determined to construct warehouses there.

The truth is, that they had no proper to promote this land. Though it (amongst 22 plots) was transferred by the Riga Metropolis Council for privatization again in 2012, it was executed illegally. As a result of first the Ministry of Transport needed to have its say, having the correct to purchase this land, turning municipal property into state property.

None of this was executed. In consequence, the acquisition by the Lithuanian developer turned out to be unlawful and it was inconceivable to register it within the Land Register.

Then, with a view to disguise the ins and outs of the acquisition and legalize it, the next was invented. An official from the capital’s self-government urged that an official from the Ministry of Transport difficulty a post-facto letter during which the ministry would waive first-hand rights in relation to these land plots.

In keeping with Latvian TV, the primary official was the appearing director of the Riga Metropolis Council’s Division of House and Mobility, Jānis Vaivods (within the photograph – ed.), and the second was the adviser to the Minister of Transport, Jānis Meirāns. Meirāns had beforehand labored within the workplace of the mayor of Riga, so that they knew one another very effectively.

The model of regulation enforcement companies (retold by LTV) seems like this: supposedly final fall, Vaivods turned to his former colleague Meirans with a request to put in writing a letter with the Ministry of Transport renouncing claims to land close to the airport. For which Meirans was promised 50 thousand euros.

Behind-the-scenes conferences between the 2 officers on this matter lasted a number of months. Nevertheless, at first of this 12 months, the state all of the sudden determined that it urgently wanted all 22 land plots close to the airport. Then it turned out that they had been illegally given for privatization 12 years in the past, and two of them had been already bought two years in the past.

Prosecutor Common Juris Stukans demanded that the Riga Metropolis Council undertake a choice cancelling the privatization. After two incomprehensible quorum failures, the Riga Metropolis Council deputies lastly adopted the Prosecutor Common’s suggestion.

Nevertheless, now the Lithuanian firm that purchased the land at public sale is demanding compensation for losses. In its opinion, they’re that the primary two plots had been purchased solely with the intention of shopping for the remaining 20. In any other case, they are saying, it could not have been price beginning. Now that the Riga Metropolis Council has cancelled privatization, the Lithuanian firm has discovered itself in a silly place – and believes that it’s the RD that ought to compensate it for its losses.

And right here comes one other former worker of the Riga Metropolis Council – Pavel Tomilin, who as soon as (again within the time of Ushakov) was an assistant to the mayor of Riga, and now he’s an entrepreneur and accomplice of Lithuanian buyers. The Lithuanians entered into an settlement together with his firm to promote him two plots of land if the public sale and additional occasions had been profitable. And Tomilin’s firm, it appears, has already paid an advance…

Normally, there are a lot of intricacies on this story that the investigation should type out.

Now these supplies with the collected proof have been despatched to the felony prosecution workplace of the State Establishments Service. The Bureau for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, which collected them, asks to carry the 2 officers talked about above accountable. It additionally calls on the prosecution workplace to proceed to use coercive measures to the corporate in whose pursuits the felony offense was dedicated.

Thus, the Lithuanian developer dangers not solely lacking out on compensation, but in addition being punished.

For giving and receiving a bribe, our regulation supplies for imprisonment for as much as eight years with or with out confiscation of property and deprivation of the correct to have interaction in sure actions or the correct to carry a sure place for as much as 5 years.

In flip, the corporate might face liquidation, restriction of rights, confiscation of property or assortment of cash.