German businessmen triumph in court – connections with the Kaunas case

The company “Leonhard Weiss” from Germany, which participated in the construction of the “Rail Baltica” section, proved its right in court after a process lasting more than 6 years – it will not pay 1.25 million. EUR interest to potentially dishonest partners from Lithuania – “Autokaustai”.

The story began back in 2017, when “Leonhard Weiss” together with business partners from Lithuania – “Hidrostatyba” and “Autokausta” signed a joint operation agreement for the reconstruction of the “Rail Baltica” section Kaunas – Palemonas. in 2018 the consortium won the announced nearly 55 million public procurement worth EUR.

“Hidrostatyba” became the main responsible partner of the project, which concluded bilateral contracts with “Autokausta” and the company “Leonhard Weiss”.

Further, the story developed rapidly – work began, and “Hydrostatyba” became insolvent at one stage and announced restructuring. According to the German businessmen, realizing the importance of the project for Lithuania and valuing its reputation, the company agreed to replace Hidrostatyba and become a responsible partner in joint activities.

“The whole essence of the joint venture agreement is that the partners share work, profit and losses equally, but after the departure of Hidrostatyba, all issues of project completion fell to us, Leonhard Weiss, and Autokausta continued to behave as if nothing had happened. We were required to pay even for the work we did ourselves. Later, they began to demand interest on allegedly unpaid funds. Trusting the West was probably our biggest mistake,” says Alexander Schneider, Technical Manager of Construction Infrastructure at Leonhard Weiss International.

According to A. Schneider, what kind of partners he had to deal with in Lithuania soon became clear when “Autokausta” became involved in the corruption scandal in Kaunas in 2023.

The favorable decision of the Supreme Court of Lithuania for the company “Leonhard Weiss” not only ends the long history, but also reflects the principles of the company – honesty, transparency and responsibility. This is an important sign for all business entities in Lithuania and the international community about the transparency of the Lithuanian legal system.

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It should be reminded that we are talking about a notorious company that had corrupt connections with Kaunas City Hall. As the media has repeatedly announced, only in 2022 In March, after the arrest of Vilias Šiliauskas, EUR 140,000 was found in his house, which is believed to have been received as a bribe. According to the prosecutor’s office, this is the largest amount of bribe found in Lithuania so far.

According to the case, the manager of “Autokaustas” took bribes to V. Šiliauskas’ home and left them in the mailbox, and transferred the money to the company’s premises. Eight episodes of bribery were recorded. It is estimated that in 2021-2022 V. Šiliauskas, in his position as the director of Kaunas municipality administration, directly demanded and accepted EUR 260,000 from J. Kriaučiūnas for his own benefit.