Corruption, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation

Inara Vilkaste.

Stalbergs was initially sentenced to seven years and six months in prison plus confiscation of property by the Riga Vidzeme District Court back in 2012, but he appealed the ruling.

After the ruling, Stalbergs told LETA that these past years have been very hard on him, and that had he known about Vilkaste's methods he ''would not have gone anywhere near her''.

The criminal case against Stalbergs was submitted to the court in the summer of 2007. He was accused of attempting to extort money from Vilkaste, dissemination of false information, threatening Vilkaste, and others.

Stalbergs was arrested on November 15, 2006, but later released on an LVL 100,000 bail. He was arrested again on suspicion of organizing a murder attempt against then State Revenue Service's Customs Criminal Administration Director Vladimirs Vaskevics, ex-husband of Vilkaste, but later released from jail.