On Thursday, the Kaunas District Court will open a criminal case in which the former mayor of Alytus district and current member of the council, Algirdas Vrubliauskas, is accused of abusing self-government benefits.
This case was transferred to the court at the end of March, A. Vrubliauskas is accused of fraud, abuse, forgery of a document and possession of a forged document.
The Special Investigation Service (STT) submitted the allegations to the politician at the beginning of January. Soon A. Vrubliauskas returned almost 20 thousand. of the municipal council member’s benefits, calling their use for personal needs a “disappointing mistake”.
According to the pre-trial investigation, A. Vrubliauskas may have declared personal fuel and vehicle repair expenses as related to the activities of a council member.
According to law enforcement, the former mayor submitted forged documents to the municipal administration and in this way fraudulently obtained almost 20,000 during the last term. euros.
Having received suspicions, A. Vrubliauskas also suspended his membership in the Patriotic Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) party in January, with which he entered the Alytus district council in last year’s municipal elections.
The conservative, who has been in charge of the municipality since 1997, lost in the second round to Rasa Vitkauskiena nominated by the Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos” and lost his long-term post of mayor.
According to the data of May 6, STT is conducting 25 pre-trial investigations into the possible inappropriate use of funds by 25 municipalities: the cities of Vilnius, Šiauliai, Panevėžys and the cities of Alytus, Utena, Ukmergė, Kretinga, Ignalina, Mažeikių, Šilutė, Jonava, Lazdijai, Pasvali, Prienė, Telšiai, Radviliškis, Joniškis, Tauragė, Zarasai, Akmenė districts and municipalities of Birštonas, Marijampole, Neringa, Pagėgiai, Druskininkai.
Suspicions have been brought against eight politicians, three cases have been referred to the court.
Law enforcement investigations were started after publicist Andrius Tapinas, who initiated the “Skaidrinam” campaign, started publicizing the possible abuse of the benefits of members of municipal councils.
