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Andris Ozols.

Considering that the agreement concluded between Aerodium and the LIDA is worth a total of LVL 2.55 million, the bribe would have amounted to LVL 204,000.

The first hint at the necessity of paying a bribe was made in summer last year to one of Beitans' colleagues. The request to Beitans directly was made in autumn. During the meeting, Ozols insisted on switching off mobile telephones and removing the batteries.

"We refused to pay, therefore problems began to occur," says the businessman.

He explains that the company did not turn to the law enforcement institutions immediately after the bribe demand due to the fact that it wished to complete work on the wind tunnel for Latvia's "Expo" pavilion. Now this has been done, and "we can do battle."

Beitans is currently on a business trip in Italy. Following his return to Latvia, he will turn to the Corruption Prevention Bureau (CPB) with a request to investigate Ozols' actions, which include demanding a bribe, extortion, slander and blackmail.

The Aerodium director also rejected rebukes over the activity of his company's wind tunnel in Jelgava, indicating that there were problems with the object's noise levels and that it had been financially unsuccessful. However, Beitans indicated that the object was fully operational and was used for training army personnel and instructors, despite not being open to the public.

Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday on Latvian State Radio, Ozols categorically denied that he would have accepted a bribe, describing Beitans as a fraudster. The LIDA director also indicated that an inspector had been sent to Shanghai to investigate reported problems with the pavilion, where Aerodium have not fulfilled points made in the agreement.

As LETA was informed by CPB spokesman Andris Vitenburgs, the bureau is already carrying out operations in order to assess the facts connected with the alleged bribe demands.