According to data from the State Tax Inspectorate, on 17 December last year, Silickienė amended the amount her husband holds in the bank in her tax return.
It is reported that, before this, he had declared EUR 6,700 thousand euros in the bank and EUR 88,700 in cash. Following the amendment to the tax return, the amount of money held in the bank by the VAT adviser’s husband rose to EUR 25,400.
For her part, according to State Tax Inspectorate data, Silickienė declared that, out of her savings of EUR 97,600, she held EUR 70,000 in cash.
Charges brought
ELTA reports that, as part of an investigation into possible corruption at the Plant Production Service, searches were carried out in February at Skvernelis’s home and office. In April, the MP was charged with bribery.
Last December, during an investigation into a particularly large-scale corruption case at the Plant Production Service, officials arrested a total of 13 people. The number of suspects subsequently increased.
According to law enforcement authorities, evidence gathered during the investigation indicates that representatives of companies transporting plants and plant products were systematically demanded and paid large bribes in exchange for phytosanitary certificates issued by the service to freight carriers.
Even at that stage, those named as suspects included the service’s director, Jurijus Kornijenko, who had been suspended from his duties; his deputy, Mantas Butas; adviser Silickienė, who had also worked with MP Skvernelis; Giedrius Urbelionis, head of the Alytus regional branch, and Dalia Šubonienė, acting head of the Kaunas regional branch.
During more than 100 searches, over EUR 1.3 million in cash and 8 kilograms of gold, worth around EUR 1 million, were seized; 11,000 packets of cigarettes, 14,000 litres of alcohol, cocaine and explosives were also found.
In February, searches were also carried out at the home and office of Conservative MP Kazys Starkevičius. He was subsequently charged; he resigned his seat in the Seimas and announced that he was suspending his membership of the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats party. He later admitted to the news portal ‘15min’ that he had accepted a bribe of up to EUR 20,000.