Corruption, Energy, Latvia, Legislation

Balakleiskis has been working at the Corruption Prevention Bureau for five years, before that he worked at the State Police's Latgale Region Administration.

Prosecutor General's Office press secretary Laura Pakalne declined to tell LETA if Balakleiskis was the person suspected of leaking the materials, explaining that this question should be replied by the Corruption Prevention Bureau.

Corruption Prevention Bureau's press officer Andris Vitenburgs told LETA that investigation into the case continued yet, therefore no further information would be provided for the time being.

Vitenburgs also declined to reply if Balakleiskis had been suspended from his job.

The name of Balakleiskis has not been mentioned in the media in connection with any high-profile cases investigated by the Corruption Prevention Bureau, except that "pietiek.com" wrote last year that Balakleiskis was the investigator who previously took the decision to halt a criminal procedure over the Riga International Airport's secret agreement with the "Ryanair" airline.

According to Balakleiskis' declaration of income for 2010, he and his wife own a private home and an apartment near Daugavpils, and an apartment in Riga. The investigator in 2010 also owned Mitsubishi manufactured in 1995 and a "Lada 112" made in 2002.

Balakleiskis earned LVL 10,094 as a Corruption Prevention Bureau investigator in 2010, and he had cash savings of EUR 2000. Two years before that, the investigator had debt obligations of LVL 42,370.

As reported, a staff member at the Corruption Prevention Bureau has been suspended following an internal investigation into how the portal "pietiek.com" got hold of taped conversations – evidence in the Latvenergo CEO corruption case.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau is still attempting to determine how much information was actually leaked.

The portal included transcripts of telephone calls from 2010 between (apparently) business consultant Andrejs Livanovics, an official from the French concern Alstom Power, and now former Latvenergo President Karlis Mikelsons and Vice President Aigars Melko. Their phones were bugged as part of an investigation.

Both were subsequently arrested on charges of abuse of high office for financial gain and money laundering.