Estonian Oleg Ossinovski likely to be charged in Latvian railway corruption case
The Latvian Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau asked the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office on Monday to prosecute former Latvian Railways (LDz) CEO, Ugis Magonis, for accepting a bribe of €500,000. Estonian railway businessman Oleg Ossinovski could be facing charges as well.
The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) stated on its website that Magonis had accepted a bribe in connection with a tender concerning the state railway’s subsidiary LDz Ritosa Sastava Serviss (LDz Rolling Stock Maintenance).
The lead investigator in the case apparently requested that Magonis be prosecuted for large-scale graft, and along with him another individual for giving the bribe to a state official with the aim of achieving a favorable decision.
KNAB said they were not releasing any further information regarding this matter at the moment.
Magonis’ attorney, Janis Rozenbergs told the Baltic News Service that he was now waiting for the Prosecutor General's Office to make a decision whether to officially charge, or return the case files to KNAB for carrying out further investigation. Up to ten days could pass for this step.
When asked if the other person investigated by KNAB was Estonian businessman Oleg Ossinovski, Rozenbergs said that this was probably the case.
KNAB suspects Magonis of accepting a bribe of 500,000 euros to get LDz Ritosa Sastava Serviss to purchase four old locomotives for several million euros from Estonian millionaire Oleg Ossinovski's company Skinest. Ossinovski has denied any corrupt practices in the sale of the locomotives.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS