Latvia, Legislation, Railways, Transport

Kristine Sutugina, the press secretary of the prosecutor's office, said that the criminal case against a state official and an individual over a huge bribe had been sent to court but would not specify the names of the accused.

According to the criminal charges, the individual had offered a EUR 500,000 bribe to the state official for taking a decision favorable to a foreign company and had handed over EUR 499,500 which the state official had accepted. The prosecutor's office would not disclose any other information.

As reported, the Latvian Corruption Prevention Bureau in summer 2015 detained Magonis with nearly EUR 0.5 million in cash. Allegedly it was a bribe he had accepted to have LDz Ritosa Sastava Serviss, a subsidiary of Latvijas Dzelcels, to purchase four old locomotives for several million euros from the Estonian millionaire Oleg Ossinovski's company Skinest.

Magonis was promptly fired from the top position at Latvijas Dzelzcels. Initially the court ruled to keep him in custody but later he was released against a huge EUR 400,000 bail.