Ignas Vgl, lawyer. Photo of Judita Grigelyts (V).
The heating system trade and development group Vilpra Kirgizij, controlled by candidate president Igno Vgls, may have circumvented European Union (EU) sanctions to Russia and Belarus by exporting air conditioners, according to an investigation conducted by the investigative journalism center Siena with partners in Lithuania and Belarus.
A former employee of Vilpros informed the media about a possible sanctions circumvention scheme, and will claim that the export of air conditioners, air pumps and contract parts to Kyrgyzstan began a few months ago after the start of Russia’s large-scale war in Ukraine in the summer of 2022.
according to the data collected by the journalist, after the EU banned the export of air conditioners to Russia and Belarus, Vilpro’s trade with two companies registered in Kyrgyzstan, Mavic Expert and Service Pack LCD, which do not actually exist, has suddenly increased.
These data coincided with Lithuania’s official trade statistics, which show that after the EU sanctions came into force, the export of Lithuanian air conditioners to Belarus stopped, but increased to Kyrgyzstan.
Vilpra intensively traded with Kyrgyzstan from September 2022 to March 2023. According to the data collected by Siena, Vilpra exported about 940,000 EUR of air conditioners to Central Asia during the specified period.
The Customs Criminal Service for Siena has confirmed that last summer, after refusing to allow Vilpro’s cargo to Kyrgyzstan, the company is trying to resume the export of its products to Asian countries.
Vilpra denied to the investigators that he was trying to circumvent the EU sanctions in any way, and our leader, I. Vgl’s brother Martynas Vgl, called the journalist’s investigation political.
In the press release issued on Monday, Vilpra questioned the reputation of the journalist who conducted the investigation, saying that he is a liar and obviously politicized.
mon noted that the information published in the study is not supported by facts, the business reputation of the company may be damaged.
According to the data provided by Vilpro, the company exported 700,000 EUR of products to Kyrgyzstan in 2022, compared to 370,000 EUR last year.
According to Siena, under the guise of trade with Kyrgyzstan, the EU trades with Russia and Belarus in other goods to which the bloc is applying sanctions.
Rolandas Jurgaitis, the senior adviser of the Customs Department’s Business Access and Non-Tariff Measures Control Department, told Siena that exports to Lithuania and the EU in Central Asia will increase in the summer of 2022, after the end of the permission for businesses to complete the sanctioned goods supply transactions with Russia and Belarus.
According to Siena, the main shareholder of Vilpros and its related company is Algirdas Stasys Vgl, I. Vgls, and the candidate for president himself served for a long time on the boards of various subsidiary companies.
When the investigation appeared, I. Vgl denied the journalistic information in a meeting with the market in Kaunas, claiming that the Siena investigation had been ordered.
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