One of the 21 persons detained in the criminal proceedings initiated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) may be Arvis Širaks. He cannot be reached on his mobile phone today, and the VDAA landline is also disconnected. His deputy, Jolanda Mustermane, is likewise unreachable – both phones remain silent. According to information available to Inc., Širaks did not come to work today.
By phone, VDAA representative, Head of Cooperation Projects at the Administrative Department, Kristaps Prēdelis, told Inc. that Širaks indeed had not been at work, but that he was on vacation.
Arvis Širaks is Deputy Director of the State Digital Development Agency (VDAA), as well as Director of the Administrative Department.
Inc. also knows that, in parallel to his work at VDAA, Širaks had been contracted by the Central Election Commission (CVK) specifically to organize public procurement for the election system and to develop IT systems for the 2025 municipal elections. According to the public official’s declaration of Arvis Širaks, in 2024 he received, in addition to a salary of 55.6 thousand euros from VDAA, a salary of 14.2 thousand euros from CVK.
It has already been reported that yesterday, on 17 March, the State Police carried out procedural actions in the criminal proceedings initiated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), conducting a large-scale arrest operation and dismantling an organized criminal group suspected of irregularities in public procurement procedures related to the acquisition of IT systems for state institutions. During the procedural actions in Riga and the Riga region yesterday, the State Police, together with cooperation partners, detained 21 persons, including public officials.
The criminal proceedings were initiated at the end of last year and are classified under Section 177, Paragraph Three of the Criminal Law for fraud committed on a large scale by an organized group, and under Section 195, Paragraph Three of the Criminal Law for large-scale money laundering committed by an organized group.
During the investigation, it was established that an organized group of persons had entered into an illegal secret agreement in order to predetermine who would win public procurement tenders in at least six projects financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in amounts of up to 1.5 million euros.
Information obtained in the investigation indicates that members of the organized group arranged to ensure that project assignments were awarded to pre-selected companies, after which the illegally obtained profit was divided among the accomplices. There are also suspicions that the contracts were unlawfully secured with the assistance of public officials.
Yesterday, a total of 67 searches were carried out in Riga and the Riga region, both at the residences of individuals and in companies, resulting in the acquisition of a substantial body of potential evidence, as well as the detention of 21 persons in total.
Extensive police forces were involved in the investigative activities – the Economic Crime Enforcement Department of the State Police, the Criminal Police Department offices of the State Police Riga Regional Department, the Organized Crime, Serious and Serial Crime Enforcement Department of the State Police, the Cybercrime Enforcement Department of the State Police, as well as EPPO and Europol.
Inc. already reported yesterday that, in connection with the development and operation of IT systems for the 2025 municipal elections, law enforcement authorities carried out procedural actions at the premises of the Ministry of Environmental Protection state secretary, Edvīns Balševics, according to information available to Inc.
Procedural actions were also carried out at the former head of the State Regional Development Agency (VRAA), Jorens Liopa, as well as at entrepreneur and owner of Corporate Solutions group, Aigars Ceruss.
Asked what connection entrepreneur Ceruss has with the election IT system procurement, an Inc. source said: “This entrepreneur has a practice of registering companies in the names of his employees, thereby creating artificial competition, even though in fact the company ‘Baltic Software factory’, which was one of the three developers of the new system, is a company related to Ceruss.” He added that companies related to and controlled by Ceruss have developed both the prosecution information system together with ZZ Dats, and E-case, and E-health.
Meanwhile, it was precisely Balševics who “got his friend and former colleague at the Court Administration appointed as head of VDAA,” the Inc. source says. Declarations of State Revenue Service officials show that Balševics and Liopa worked at the Court Administration at the same time at least from 2011 to 2019.
The Inc. source reports that “with a very high probability” a search was also carried out at the company “Ernst & Young Baltics”, which developed the technical specification.
Entrepreneur Aigars Ceruss’s mobile phone was switched off and unreachable yesterday, and the mobile phone of the Ministry of Environmental Protection state secretary, Balševics, did not answer.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/viens-no-eppo-kriminalprocesa-aizturetajiem-varetu-but-vdaa-direktora-vietnieks-arvis-siraks/
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