Corruption, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation

Maris Leja.

On Thursday Leja demanded five years and six months in jail for Melko, five years for Cvetkovs, and five years for Livanovics.

Leja also said Melko and Cvetkovs should pay EUR 480,600 compensation, and Livanovics' company Energy Consulting – EUR 608,000. In addition, Melko asked the court to open a case against former Alstom Latvia official Juris Lacis for perjury.

The prosecutor said addressing the court that evidence in the case proved that the consulting contract Latvenergo had signed with Energy Consulting was, at least in part, fictitious.

Leja's accusations are largely based on a draft table found on Livanovics, which concerned further distribution of money received from Latvenergo. According to the table, just a small part of the money paid by Latvenergo would remain at Energy Consulting, and the largest amounts were to be paid to individuals denoted as GC and AM. Although Livanovics had previously told the court that the amounts indicated in the chart were not meant to be paid to Latvenergo officials and employees, and that AM did not stand for Aigars Melko, Leja said that there were significant contradictions in Livanovics' testimony – especially regarding important matters that the defendant should have been able to remember clearly.

Leja also reminded about a conversation between Livanovics and Cvetkovs to arrange a meeting to hand over "an envelope" and discussing other ways of communication, for instance, "Skype" as it "could not be wiretapped". Livanovics insisted, however, that the envelope contained not money, but documents concerning a settlement in a legal dispute.

According to the indictment in the case, Latvenergo officials and employees were receiving bribes from August 2007 to June 2010 so Latvenergo would pick Alstom Power Sweden AB's bid for reconstruction of hydraulic units at the Plavinas power plant. The total amount of bribes, in this particular case, was EUR 627,100.

Livanovics has been charged with giving bribes, and Melko and his former colleague Cvetkovs with taking bribes.

Former Latvenergo President Karlis Mikelsons could not explain why Latvenergo had to sign a contract with Energy Consulting, given that Alstom had a subsidiary in Latvia, Alstom Latvia. Mikelsons also said he did not know anything about the agreement with Energy Consulting.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau opened the criminal case against Latvenergo officials in 2010. Searches were carried out at their offices, and several leading Latvenergo officials were detained, including Mikelsons and his deputy Melko.

In the fall of 2012, the Corruption Prevention Bureau asked the prosecutor's office to bring charges against seventeen persons in total over bribery during the reconstruction of Plavinas power plant and Riga 2nd cogeneration plant. Several criminal cases that deal with the Latvenergo bribery affair are already being reviewed by courts.

According to the Corruption Prevention Bureau, the now former Latvenergo officials have received a total of approximately EUR 8 million in bribes, and were to receive another EUR 11 million in bribe money but were detained before it could happen.