A company partially owned by Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas received a €200,000 preferential loan from Lithuania’s national development bank while he was already serving as head of government, according to an investigation released Wednesday by the investigative journalism centre Siena and Laisvės TV.
The company, Garnis, which plans to manufacture battery systems, received the maximum loan available under ILTE Bank’s Startuok programme for small and medium-sized startups in early February.
According to the bank’s criteria, firms applying for loans must meet a capital adequacy threshold, meaning their equity must amount to at least 10% of their total assets, including the loan. However, the investigation found that Garnis’s share capital stood at just €10,000 in the autumn of 2024. On December 28, the company’s shareholders approved an increase to €40,000 by issuing new shares in proportion to existing ownership.
Mindaugas Milašauskas acquired 51% of the new shares, and Paluckas – who had already assumed the role of prime minister – acquired the remaining 49%. The shareholders’ meeting was not disclosed in Paluckas’ official public schedule.
In February and March, Paluckas participated in government decisions related to ILTE Bank, including submitting amendments to legislation governing the bank’s operations and approving borrowing limits for central government entities, including ILTE.
ILTE Bank is fully owned and overseen by the Ministry of Finance.
Paluckas confirmed to Siena and Laisvės TV that he was aware of the loan but said he was not involved in the company’s operations and saw no reason to recuse himself from decisions involving the bank. He also denied influencing any outcomes.
“I genuinely see no direct connection between the company’s activities, which I have declared, and the legal acts in question, which are entirely unrelated,” Paluckas said.
The prime minister emphasised that he is a minority shareholder and downplayed the significance of the capital increase, which he said was necessary to carry out “certain business operations”, including qualifying for a larger loan from ILTE.
Paluckas claimed that Garnis applied for the loan in the summer of 2024, but ILTE records show the application was submitted on November 4 – after the Social Democrats won parliamentary elections – with the loan approved in mid-December. The loan agreement was finalised in February 2025.
According to ILTE, Garnis appropriately disclosed that one of its shareholders was a high-ranking political official.
Garnis was registered in January 2024, with 49% of its shares held by Paluckas and 51% by Milašauskas. The company currently employs four people and is headed by CEO Artūras Lapinskas, according to state social insurance data.
Paluckas also controls 51% of Emus, an electronics and household appliance manufacturing firm founded in 2010. Milašauskas holds the remaining 49%.
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