The pre-trial investigation related to the financial technology company Foxpay is looking into suspicions of property crimes as well as corruption, Lithuanian prosecutors said on Friday.
“The pre-trial investigation is being carried out on a sufficiently broad scale,” Artūras Urbelis, chief prosecutor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, told reporters in Vilnius.
According to him, property crimes include embezzlement, theft and large-scale fraud, while corruption crimes include bribery and money laundering.
Earlier this week, Lithuanian law enforcement detained Ieva Trinkūnaitė, the shareholder of Foxpay, her partner Vilhelmas Germanas, and Mindaugas Navickas, the spouse of former social security minister Monika Navickienė, as part of this investigation.
Further reading
On Thursday, Germanas was remanded in custody for two months, while the other suspects were subjected to lighter preventive measures following their detention.
According to Urbelis, there are seven suspects in the investigation, but there could be more in the future.
Companies iSun, Foxpay, Litlab are also part of the investigation, but no allegations have been made against them yet.
Asked whether Navickienė, who remains a member of parliament with the conservative Homeland Union (TS-LKD) party, is implicated in the case, investigators said she was not.
“In the ongoing pre-trial investigation, we have no questions or claims against Navickienė,” Jovitas Raskevičius, first deputy director of the Special Investigation Service (STT), told reporters.
Rolandas Kiškis, head of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service (FNTT), says the investigation was started back in autumn 2023 and has involved many institutions. It has been delayed by the suspects’ evasive behaviour.
Officials have been conducting an unspecified number of separate investigations into these individuals since last year, but in September they were merged into one. This was followed by more active procedural actions.
Robert Sadianec, head of the Special Task Board at the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT), said that since October 16, 32 searches were carried out at the homes and offices of the suspects and their associates. The operation involved 80 officers.
“The amount of information [obtained] is insane,” the official said.
They also found around 500,000 euros in cash, as well as various works of art, watches, and cryptocurrency wallets. According to Sadianec, it is suspected that the suspects bought luxury items as a way of laundering the proceeds of crime. Moreover, ownership to properties worth around 3 million euros has been restricted, but the amount could increase.
Laundering 17 million euros
According to the FNTT report, a group of at least four accomplices with influence over Foxpay employees allegedly carried out financial transactions using proceeds from crime. It is suspected that at least 17 million euros may have been laundered in this way between 2023 and 2024.
In addition, the accomplices may have paid bribes to the company’s employees in charge of money laundering and terrorist financing prevention (they are treated as civil servants due to the duties they perform), and the amount of possible bribes discovered so far exceeds 100,000 euros, according to the FNTT.
Moreover, the group of accomplices may have misappropriated foreign property at their disposal – specialised cryptocurrency mining equipment belonging to a foreign company and worth more than 24 million euros.
The investigation also covers the construction of LitLab’s administrative building and Foxpay’s involvement in public procurement by public institutions.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
