The investigation has been launched at a time when the government and Gazprom have opened consultations on possibilities for lowering the price of gas for Lithuania, with the Russian gas giant sticking to its demands that the country scrap plans to unbundle Lietuvos Dujos' assets to bring it into line with the EU's third energy package and withdraw its 1.5-billion-euro claim for damages filed with the Stockholm arbitration court.
As part of the investigation, which was launched in November 2012, two employees of the company were notified of suspicions. Searches and other procedural actions were conducted at the company’s premises on Wednesday, the prosecutors reported on Thursday.
Higher prices for consumers
Actions by staff of Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas), the Lithuanian natural gas import and transportation company that is controlled by Russia's Gazprom and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas, might have upped gas prices for household consumers for 2013, a prosecutor has said.
"Lietuvos Dujos provided data to the National Control Commission for Prices and Energy, and we believe they were not totally correct. (...) It seems that higher prices were set but that's the subject of an investigation whether or not it was the case and what is the size of potential damage done," Ugnius Vyčinas, a prosecutor from the Prosecutor General's Department for Criminal Prosecution, told BNS on Thursday.
In his words, prosecutors suspect that the submitted inaccurate data could have allowed setting higher gas prices for household consumers. He later told a news conference that he was talking about 2013 prices, while the commission for control of prices was not notified of the investigation.
Two staff members of Lietuvos Dujos are suspected of fraud and document forgery. In Vyčinas' words, they acted for the benefit of the gas utility.
"The suspicion is that they acted to the benefit of Lietuvos Dujos, the actions benefited Lietuvos Dujos and them personally in an indirect manner, as they continue working at the company," the prosecutor told BNS.
In his words, suspicions may be brought against more persons in the future. He has said that top executives of Lietuvos Dujos have not yet been interrogated and there are no evidence of their connection to the criminal deeds.
Full cooperation
Representatives of Lietuvos Dujos have said on Thursday that the company cooperates with law-enforcement officers.
"The officers came to Lietuvos Dujos' office on January 29 and performed procedural actions. The company fully cooperates with the authorities and is ready to cooperate in the future," Sigita Petrikonyte Jurkūnienė, a spokeswoman for the company, which is controlled by Russia's Gazprom and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas, said in a press release.
"The company always provides the Price Commission with data in accordance with the law and legislation approved by the Price Commission," she said.
The spokeswoman added that the company will not provide more detailed comments until the procedural actions are completed.
