The Special Investigation Service (STT) and the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) announced last week that they have completed a pre-trial investigation and handed over a criminal case to the court regarding systemic corruption and financial criminal schemes in managing waste in the Vilnius region.
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Bribery charges were brought against two former employees of the Vilnius County Waste Management Center (VAATC), an intermediary who assisted them, four company representatives, and one waste transport company.
15min reports that one of the accused employees is V. Pruskas. The STT announced suspicions against him back in 2023.
Now his colleague in the Elektrėnai municipality council, opposition Freedom Party representative Edvardas Baleišis, also mentions this in his social media posts.
It is reported that the investigation is related to large-scale bribery, corruption, influence peddling, providing false income data, fraudulent financial accounting, and illegal possession of firearms, ammunition, explosives, or explosive materials.
The investigation found that VAATC employees, allegedly acting in a group of accomplices and seeking financial gain for themselves and others, regularly accepted bribes from companies engaged in waste management to accept waste delivered to the Vilnius region landfill in violation of established procedures – some waste was not recorded, thus avoiding waste disposal fees.
Investigators determined that from November 2022 to May 2023, VAATC employees and the intermediary assisting them received at least 162 thousand euros in bribes.
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The law enforcement suspects that from November 2022 to May 2023, VAATC employees and the intermediary received at least 162 thousand euros in bribes in total.
The authorities informed V. Pruskas of the suspicions back in 2023 when the investigation began.
At that time, it was announced that V. Pruskas, then head of the VAATC Landfill Operations Department, was charged with bribery, and a total of 12 people were detained.
V. Pruskas suspended his membership in the Liberal Movement back in November 2023 but continues to work in the Elektrėnai municipality council and since June has also been employed at the Elektrėnai municipality sports center.
“The case has been ongoing for nearly three years. What do you think, I will just sit and look at the sky? I have to work somewhere and earn something. Since I know something, I participate,” 15min said V. Pruskas.
What do you think, I will just sit and look at the sky? I have to work somewhere and earn something.
Why V. Pruskas was suitable for the deputy position was also explained by the center’s director Alfredas Antanas Vainauskas.
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