Bartasevičs told the LETA agency that he is now accused of having undeclared real estate in Bulgaria in 2007, which he never owned. Their owner was his wife. This information can be checked in the Bulgarian real estate register.
Bartaševičs still believes that the criminal proceedings against him are of a political nature in order to destroy both him as a politician and the “Together for Latvia” party. He admits that all the persecutions have a distinctly political nature, and not the financial problems of the Rēzekne municipality. “A decision has been made to destroy me and the party. Considerable resources of the state administration are being mobilized for this,” Bartašević believes.
LETA has already reported that the prosecutor’s office has filed an indictment against the former mayor of Rēzekne, Bartašević, for disclosing limited access information to his wife Olga, while the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) on Friday has instigated another criminal trial to accuse Bartašević of providing false information in the declaration.
On Friday, KNAB handed over to the Prosecutor’s Office for the Investigation of Criminal Offenses in the Service of State Institutions a criminal trial in which they obtained evidence that the former chairman of the Rēzekne municipality did not provide complete information on transactions with real estate and natural persons for a total of almost 270,000 euros in the declarations of state officials for 16 years, LETA informed the agency KNAB.
The evidence obtained in the KNAB pre-trial investigation shows that between 2007 and 2023, the former chairman of the council did not provide information about two jointly owned real estates in Bulgaria with a female relative in the declarations of the public official. Also, in the declarations, this state official did not indicate transactions related to the purchase and sale of these properties for a total of 205,786.50 euros, as well as 64,000 euros transactions with natural persons.
As a result of the pre-trial investigation, KNAB has urged the prosecutor’s office to initiate criminal prosecution against the former chairman for providing false information in the statutory declaration of income, property, transactions or other property, if false information is provided about a large amount of property.
Providing false information in the declaration of a public official has not only legal consequences, but also several other negative aspects. Such criminal offenses mislead the public about the actual property status of public officials and undermine trust in both public officials and public administration, according to KNAB. Among other things, it limits the public’s ability to follow the property status of officials, when the official takes office and finally fulfills his duties, which in turn serves as a reference point for the development of a fairer and more open society.
At the beginning of April, in another case, KNAB urged the prosecutor’s office to charge Bartasevič with the fact that he disclosed restricted access information to his wife Olga and for ten years did not provide complete information about the part of the loan in the amount of 33,000 euros in the declarations of the state official.
The evidence obtained by KNAB shows that the former chairman of the Rēzekne council, driven by personal motives and encouraged by a family member, instructed a municipal employee to obtain information from the database available for the performance of her duties.
The employee gave the obtained limited access information related to several real estates to Bartaševiča, who disclosed this information to a family member, who, according to the information available to the LETA agency, is his wife and the owner of several companies, Olga Bartaševiča. For example, according to “firmas.lv” information, Batrtaševiča, together with her brother-in-law Mihail Bartaševiča, owns half of SIA “Latgalija”, which, according to the data displayed on the website of the Procurement Supervision Office, has repeatedly won large-scale Rēzekne municipality procurements.
Also, the investigation found that Bartašević did not provide information about the part of the loan granted to a family member in the amount of 32,984 euros in the declarations of the state official from 2014.
Taking into account the above, KNAB has initiated a criminal prosecution against the former mayor of Rēzekne for disclosing undisclosed information that is not a state secret.
Also, KNAB incriminated him for stating false information about property or other income in large amounts in the state official’s declaration. The official’s family member, on the other hand, was urged to be accused of inciting to disclose undisclosed information.
Meanwhile, the municipal employee’s status was changed during the criminal proceedings and she participated in the investigative activities as a witness.
In the prosecutor’s office, the LETA agency found out on Friday that the indictment has been presented and issued to both persons.
It has already been reported that in the fall of 2023, financial violations were detected in the city of Rēzekne, which led to the inability to cover financial obligations. In such circumstances, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Inga Bērziņa (JV) suspended the then mayor of Rēzekne, Bartasevič. He has contested his dismissal in court, but his party members from the “Together for Latvijai” party tried for some time to get the entire Rēzekne City Council dismissed and hold emergency elections.
The ministry states that the chairman of the Rēzekne council was suspended for significant and systematic violations while managing the work of the council and being responsible for the organization and management of the municipal budget execution process. The respective violations, as well as the fact that the chairman of the council did not provide fact-based, true, comparable, understandable and complete information about the financial situation of the municipality and about the preparation and execution of the municipal budget, confirmed the inability of the chairman of the council to fulfill his duties.
Several violations have been committed in the development of the 2023 budget of the Rēzekne municipality, it was concluded in the audit conducted by the State Audit Office (VK), which evaluated whether the actions of the Rēzekne municipality in budget and financial management are in accordance with the regulations.
During the audit, the SC cooperated with the law enforcement authorities – the State Police and KNAB, which accordingly started the departmental inspection. KNAB confirmed to LETA agency in February that the inspection is still ongoing.
