Three accused in Latvenergo bribery case sentenced to prison

After reviewing the so-called Latvenergo case in appeal order, Riga Regional Court sentenced former vice-president of the company Aigars Meļķo, production director Gunārs Cvetkovs and manager of Energy Consulting company Andrejs Livanovičs to prison.

The regional court also partially lifted the ruling made by Riga District Court in 2016 and added a new sentence in this section of the criminal case. In accordance with the new ruling, Cvetkovs, who was previously found innocent, has been found guilty.
 

Meļko has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison. The court has also applied a restriction for him to take posts in management boards in state and municipal companies for three years and six months. Cvetkovs will have to spend three years and six months in prison. He, too, is not allowed to take post in state and municipal companies for three years. The same sentence has been applied to Livanovičs, who was found guilty of giving a bribe.
 

Illegally obtained funds worth EUR 146,500 will be confiscated and transferred to the state budget. The state will also enforce EUR 182,600 from Cvetkovs and EUR 290,000 from Meļko. Both amounts were obtained illegally, as concluded by Riga Regional Court.
 

The court’s ruling can be appealed in the Supreme Court starting from 23 April, when the full text of the ruling becomes available.
 

The first instance court had originally found Meļko and Livanovičs guilty. However, they were sentenced to fines for their crimes. Latvenergo production technical director Cvetkovs was found not guilty. Meļko was sentenced to a EUR 48,100 fine, whereas Livanovičs – to a EUR 37,000 fine. Charges were changed for both of them. Meļko was found guilty of accepting illegal benefits, whereas Livanovičs – for commercial bribery.
 

The court also ruled that an additional measure is to be applied against Livanovičs’ Energy Consulting of EUR 148,000.

According to the accusation, bribery took place during the period between 1 August 2007 and 15 June 2010. The bribe was given in exchange for guaranteed victory for Alstom Power Sweden AB in Latvenergo’s tender for reconstruction of Plavini hydro-electric dam’s generators Nr. 4, 5 and 7 and procurement of new equipment from this company.
 

The total size of the bribe was EUR 627,100 or LVL 440,728.
 

Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau commenced the so-called Latvenergo criminal case in 2010. The bureau performed many searches and arrested several officials that year, including Latvenergo President Miķelsons, his deputy Meļko and others.

BNN/LETA

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