The co-owner of Grill London restaurant chain and a vice president of the Lithuanian Autosport Federation were arrested on Wednesday on suspicions of moving money in order to avoid taxes.
Andrius Lavrinavičius, a co-owner of Grill London restaurants, is suspected to have hidden hundreds of euros of taxes by transferring large sums of money as aid to the federation.
Kaunas Prosecutors Office said that over 418,000 euros were moved from the restaurants to the federation between 2017 and 2019.
Prosecutors suspect that Ernestas Staponkus, the vice-president of the Lithuanian Autosport Federation and a former racer who now heads the autosport club ES Motorsport, cashed the aid and returned some of the money to Lavrinavičius.
As a result, companies headed by Lavrinavičius may have dodged at least 125,000 euros of taxes, according to investigators.
A Kaunas court sanctioned the arrest of the two men for one month on Wednesday.
Staponkus is also suspected of doctoring ES Motorsport's books and transferring over 200,000 euros to a company in Florida for services unrelated to the club's activities. According to investigators, the intention may have been to lower ES Motorsport's tax bill by almost 35,000 euros.
Over 130 police officers were involved in the investigation, carrying out over 40 searches across Lithuania, Kaunas County Police Chief Elanas Jablonskas told reporters on Wednesday.
During the searches, the police seized about a million euros in cash, including 800,000 from one of the suspects, according to Jablonskas.
Grill London is a chain of 15 restaurants across Lithuania. Along with several other brands that belong to the same owners, it is considered one of the biggest restaurant groups in the country, even though information about the revenue it generates have not been made public.
According to the business daily Verslo Žinios, it is because the restaurants are run by a number of different companies, all owned by four people.
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