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Lithuania expels 22 Belarusian employees of EU-blacklisted company
September 7, Pozirk. Twenty-two Belarusian employees of a technology company have been declared a national security threat and expelled from Lithuania, the country’s National Security Department (VSD) reported on September 7.
Authorities have annulled the Belarusians’ residence permits, expelled them and prohibited them from returning to Lithuania. In addition, the individuals have been banned from the Schengen area for five years.
The Belarusians worked for a company involved in the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)’s project that fraudulently obtained nearly €0.5 million, VSD said. An investigation launched by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and conducted by the Lithuanian interior ministry’s Financial Crime Investigation Service in cooperation with the VSD established that the company had concealed its connections with the military industries of Russia and Belarus, the report said.
The statement follows a September 1 report by the Financial Crime Investigation Service that two citizens of Belarus had been convicted of defrauding the European Union of €500,000 in project funds after concealing that their company was subject to EU sanctions.
The Belarusians, who stood trial in the Vilnius District Court, reportedly admitted to fraud and paid more than €440,000 in damages.
According to investigators, the Lithuanian registered company was involved in the EUSPA’s project aimed at developing high precision satellite navigation receivers for agriculture, with a budget of €1.06 million, including €745,500 from the EUSPA.
The owners claimed the company was not subject to EU sanctions and had no links to blacklisted entities, but the court concluded that this information is false.
To circumvent the EU’s restrictive measures, the convicts allegedly appointed their relative, a US-Lithuanian citizen, in April 2022 as the company’s top manager, while continuing to control it behind the scenes.
The investigation also traced the individuals to Russian and Belarusian defense industry enterprises under EU sanctions. They held senior positions in a Russian company developing satellite navigation chips for military use, itself on the EU sanctions list. One of them holds Russian citizenship.
Belarusian authorities support Russia in the full-scale war against Ukraine launched by Moscow in February 2022. Hundreds of Belarusian industrial companies are reportedly manufacturing and supplying goods for Russia’s war effort.
Lithuania convicts two Belarusians for allegedly obtaining €500,000 in EU funding in violation of sanctions
September 2, Pozirk. The Lithuanian interior ministry’s Financial Crime Investigation Service reported on Tuesday that two citizens of Belarus had been convicted of defrauding the European Union of €500,000 in project funds after concealing that their company was subject to …
