Samoilas Kacas, owner of casino chain Tete-A-Tete and one of the executives of the National Gambling and Gaming Business Association, was detained on Thursday as part of an ongoing corruption probe.
"We can confirm that yesterday this person was detained and bribing and influence peddling suspicions were brought against him," Renata Keblienė from the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Special Investigation Service (STT), told BNS.
Kacas was detained as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged attempt to bribe MP Matas Maldeikis with 50,000 euros by Kestutis Motiečius, an assistant to MP Mindaugas Puidokas.
Read more: Assistant to Lithuanian MP detained in corruption probe amid alleged scuffle in parliament
According to the pre-trial investigation, Motiečius approached Maldeikis at the parliament offering him a 50,000-euro bribe and asking, in exchange, to support the initiative to suspend or postpone indefinitely the adoption of amendments to the Law on Lottery and Gaming Tax and try to convince other MPs to do the same.
Motiečius was also detained on Thursday, questioned and later released, the STT confirmed.
"A measure of suppression in the form of a written obligation not to leave and not to contact other persons is in force," Keblienė said.
The VST reported about the pre-trial investigation shortly after Puidokas made a statement in the Seimas that he had suffered violence at the hands of law enforcement agents.
The service is now carrying out an internal investigation and says its officers had to use force as Puidokas refused to hand over his mobile phones.
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