The Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania announced that four individuals have been served notices of suspicion in an investigation into possible violations of international sanctions regarding the transportation of sanctioned products to Russia. The authorities added that the investigation is ongoing, and all necessary pre-trial investigative actions are being carried out.
Prosecutors did not specify whether shareholders or top managers of the ViÄiÅ«nai group are among the suspects. It is noted that the co-owners of the ViÄiÅ«nai group are Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis and his business partner Liudas Škierys.
The pre-trial investigation was initiated on April 11 amid suspicions that the company PlungÄ—s KooperatinÄ— Prekyba, owned by the ViÄiÅ«nai group, was shipping sanctioned goods to Russia.
In early April, the investigative group LRT reported that PlungÄ—s KooperatinÄ— Prekyba had shipped dual-use goods to Russia at least 11 times since the start of the war in Ukraine.
It is reported that the company's shipments included goods from the list of priority military products necessary for the production of weapons, such as bearings used by Russia in tank manufacturing, as well as other dual-use goods.
The recipient of all the goods was the factory of the group in Sovetsk, ViÄiÅ«nai-Rus, which was sold in April.
