LAT will announce the verdict on RM Račkauskas, the mayor of Panevėžys, who was acquitted in the abuse case

They were found guilty by the court of first instance of abuse of official position while acting in a group of accomplices, and acquitted by the court of appeal.

With a cassation appeal, the prosecutor’s office asks the LAT to annul the acquittal of the Lithuanian Court of Appeal and to uphold the indictment of the court of first instance.

Prosecutor Darius Valys believes that the mayor and his adviser obtained services exclusively for selfish incentives, they wanted to remain in office.

According to him, the courts very clearly distinguished how much benefit the municipality received, and how much – RM Račkauskas and G. Maskoliūnienė. The benefit, according to D. Valis, amounts to 20 thousand. euros, more than 4 thousand among them, the services acquired exclusively for RM Račkauskas and G. Maskoliūniena from selfish incentives, in order to remain in the positions in which they were.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the Court of Appeals, which made the decision to acquit RM Račkauskas and G. Maskoliūnienė, made an unfounded conclusion that no significant damage was caused to the municipality, and also did not justify its verdict with detailed arguments, did not state reasons, did not link the actions of the accused.

At that time, the lawyer of RM Račkauskas, Valentinas Baltrūnas, claims that the Court of Appeals additionally interviewed the defendants, obliged the Special Investigations Service to submit other documents, therefore the arguments regarding the insufficient examination of the factual circumstances are groundless. According to the defender, the indictment itself is flawed – it states that the mayor received unpaid services for personal gain, but the indictment did not detail what that benefit was.

G. Maskoliūniene’s lawyer, Snieguolė Jurskytė-Ignatavičienė, says that the purchases were not aimed at personal gain, and the public procurement took place because such services were provided for in the plans of the Panevėžys municipality in 2016-2017.

The judgment of the court of first instance recognized that the mayor of Panevėžys, with the help of his advisor G. Maskoliūniene, gave illegal instructions to the employees of the Panevėžys municipal administration.

According to the court, it was intended that the company “Lukrecijos reklama” related to Marius Vaupš would win the public procurement tenders organized by the administration of Panevėžys city municipality. The scope of purchased services, technical specifications, service prices were coordinated with M. Vaupš in advance. M. Vaupš is dead.

According to the data of the case, it was also agreed on further cooperation, that is, that the Panevėžys city municipality administration will continue to purchase consulting services from the company represented by M. Vaupš in the future. In addition to the services officially purchased by the municipality, RM Račkauskas was also given personally, as a politician, useful consultations in preparation for the 2019 municipal mayoral elections.

In October, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of the mayor of Panevėžys in another case, in which he was finally acquitted of influence peddling and abuse.

The mayor did not plead guilty in any of the cases.