Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Transport, USA

At that time, Prime Minister Vilis Kristopans' Latvia's Way party was in power in the city council, the mayor was Andris Berzins, and Linda Baltina was in charge of the city's transportation department, writes LETA.

40 "Mercedes" buses were purchased, which had been made in Turkey. The official representative in Latvia was the company Silverstar, through which bribes were paid totaling LVL 268,000 into two accounts in Latvia and Germany. Baltina claims not to remember such distant events, and considers the matter to be smearing the council's image.

Following the first successful deal, the council continued its cooperation with "Mercedes", and in August 2000, announced a competition for the purchase of 117 buses. Meanwhile, Mayor Berzins had become prime minister, and his place at the council was taken by "fatherlander" Andris Argalis, who set up a competition committee under the direction of transportation director Ivars Zarumba. The committee included Baltina; finance expert Raimonds Krumins; current Rigas satiksme director Leons Bemhens, who at that time was director of the public-owned company Talava; and others.

The Latvian company Silverstar informed the company EvoBus that participants in the competition were preparing to pay bribes to Riga City Council, and made it clear that without illegal payments, it would not be possible to conclude an agreement. Seven months later, on March 27 2001, Mercedes won the competition and concluded two five-year agreements with the Talava and Imanta bus fleets worth a total of LVL 21 million.

Riga received the buses, but naturally something was not in order and they were not put out onto the streets. The bus manufacturer received a reminder by email from its representative in Riga that promises must be kept and bribes must be paid. The U.S. prosecutors revealed that a bribe of LVL 151,280 was requested at that time, to be paid as a commission fee, and EvoBus transferred this amount to the Delaware offshore company Oldenburgh Financial Corporation on July 25, 2002.

A year later, while the buses had been sitting in garages, elections changed the political situation and the Social Democrats came to power in Riga, led by Gundars Bojars.

Guntis Pilsums was charged with the overseeing transportation. The large-scale purchase continued, and Riga acquired the majority of its blue and white buses.

The U.S. prosecutors indicate that following this delivery, another bribe was paid, this time to the new party in power in the city council. This time the payment was made into the Oregon offshore company United Petrol Group. The sum, which was paid as a commission fee, was LVL 724,611, five times higher than the previous bribe.

The council officials who were responsible for the transport area at the time and for the purchases of the buses deny being among the bribe-takers and claim either to have forgotten the events of that time or to remember them with great difficulty.