Lithuanian Labour Party’s MEP may have employed fake assistants to misappropriate more than 500,000 euros from the European Parliament. The Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) said its raid in the party’s headquarters earlier this week was part of this investigation.
Though no one has been named, the party’s founder and former chairman Viktor Uspaskich is its only representative in the European Parliament. Current leader Andrius Mazuronis previously said the investigation concerned activities of the party’s “former leadership” in the EP.
The FNTT is investigating a former assistant to a Lithuanian MEP, suspecting that he or she was not performing any work and was only hired to appropriate wages and unemployment benefits.
The fraud was allegedly committed between 2014 and 2020. Suspicions were brought against one person so far, according to the FNTT.
The FNTT said it performed searches at the homes and offices of suspected individuals between March 26–28, including in the Labour Party’s headquarters in Vilnius.
The investigators also questioned witnesses and suspects.
The investigation is led by the European Delegated Prosecutors’ Office in Lithuania and is being carried out by the FNTT in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office.
Mazuronis, the party’s leader, insisted on Wednesday that the probe had nothing to do “with anyone from the party’s current leadership or any persons currently holding any position in the party”.
He did not name Uspaskich but implied that the investigation had to do with his activities.
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