“de facto” finds strangeness in “Unity” financing: Both incredibly generous members and inexplicably synchronous donations

This week, the Saeima conceptually supported the plan to reduce the threshold for criminal liability for illegal party financing by five times. The idea is that violations in the amount of seven thousand euros will be criminally punishable. This would make it easier for the Office for Prevention and Combating Corruption to start an investigation in cases where it is suspected, for example, of using intermediaries in donations to a party to hide the true donor or that it might violate the limit of donations allowed to one person. Meanwhile, the program of Latvian Television “de facto” found several oddities in the financing of the ruling party “Vienotība”: both incredibly generous members and inexplicably synchronous donations.

The amendments to the Criminal Law, which were not supported by the Legal Commission of the Saeima a week ago, gained much wider support in the commission this week, and the Saeima also overwhelmingly voted for the changes in the first reading. Only “Stability!” was against. faction and Gunārs Kūtris from ZZS.

Political scientist Iveta Kažoka, who participated in the meeting of the Legal Commission, believes that this is not just a symbolic step, because the problems with suspicious party finances are not a thing of the past: “Not all parties have a large state funding, not all parties have state funding at all, and sometimes it looks like that even those parties that have a very significant state funding still do not have their documents in order and there are some suspicious activities going on. Because I would say that this law is relevant.”

The head of the Legal Commission of the Saeima, Andrejs Yudins (JV), predicts that when the Criminal Law is opened for amendment, several proposals will be submitted on other topics as well, not only on illegal financing of parties. Therefore, some time will pass while working with the bill in the Saeima, and even after that, Yudins does not promise miracles: “The probability that those pseudo-donors will also be punished is higher. But at the same time, I have no illusions that there will be many such cases, because, as we can clearly see, very often those donors, systematic donors, donate much smaller amounts. Despite all the suspicions about the origin and motivation of the money donated, the amounts are smaller, and these amendments, I think, will not completely solve the problem”

Yudins believes that the parties need to talk more about the fact that involvement in illegal financing schemes of political forces is not permissible, and reminds that the responsibility for this is already foreseen. However, for amounts below 50 minimum wages, or 35 thousand euros, it is purely administrative.

However, even under the new – seven thousand euro – threshold, strange donations have been hidden in not so ancient history. Taking into account the publicly expressed suspicions about the circulation of cash of unknown origin in “Vienotība”, which the party categorically denies, “de facto” also examined the donations and membership fees received by this party and the party union “Jaunā Vienotība” (JV) during the last years, on a random basis focusing on contributions made by party members.

For example, Edmunds Jurēvics, the current leader of the Saeima faction of JV, started paying impressive sums to “Vienotība” already in the days when he was still working as an assistant to a Saeima deputy – at that time the salaries in this position were symbolic. So, for example, in May 2017, shortly before the municipal elections, in which Vilnis Ķirsis was the candidate for mayor of Vienotības for the first time, Jurēvics paid a total of more than a thousand euros as a member.

“I can honestly say – the 2017 elections, local government, Riga City Council, were the most decisive for the party. Also for me personally. I worked very actively together with Vilni ķirsi both on the campaign and as a candidate myself. That’s why I donated, not only supporting the overall campaign, but also Vilni ķirsi and also myself, because I was also a candidate myself. Well, that was the purpose of the donation,” explains Jurēvics.

When asked how he could afford such a donation, Jurēvics says: “Well, I could afford it at that moment, I had an official job in the Saeima, I was also a deputy in the Saeima for a long time before that [palīgs] Worked for Vilni ķirs. I had a little bit of money saved up, which I knew that the campaign would come and that it would be important for me to get both booklets and also to support the party.”

Jurēvics also supported the party with 400 euros at the end of 2017, when he was the rapporteur of the opposition faction of the Riga City Council – it is said that this was already a preparation for the Saeima elections a year later. Since 2020, when Ķirsis became the vice mayor of Riga, his adviser Jurēvics donated more than one thousand euros to the party for three years in a row. When he became a member of the Riga City Council, and later also a member of the Saeima, member Jurēvica’s monetary payments decreased considerably.

Another member of the Saeima with experience in the JV youth organization – Dāvis Mārtiņš Daugavietis – also paid more than a thousand euros to the party in 2021, but since his election to the parliament, he is no longer so generous. “Yes, I paid it out of my own money. At that time, I worked as an assistant to the member of the European Parliament, Ines Vaidera (JV). My salary came from Brussels, and I wanted to build my political career, and part of building this career is to pay the membership fee to the party, which I also considered as an investment in myself, an investment in my future, and this also resulted in the Saeima campaign,” he says. Daugaveitis.

The deputy general secretary of “Vienotības” Sanita Stelpe-Segliņa, in the days when the salaries of the party’s office workers, as has been widely reported, were not high, she was also the assistant of Ines Vaider at the same time – this is how she explains her contributions to the party. In addition, her husband Āriks Seglinņš, as well as mother-pensioner Lilija Stelpe and daughter-in-law-occupational therapist Agne Stelpe are among the supporters of the party.

“She has a pretty good pension, she has worked a pretty good job all her life, that’s why I turn to her, not to my father, who has a smaller pension in comparison,” says Stelpe-Segliņa, who has often donated with a relative in the same day, together paying a round thousand each.

Stelpe-Segliņa’s husband also donated twice – 1,000 euros and 2,500 euros. “Yes, there is… He is, as he says, not so happy about it that I addressed him and asked him. But, yes, my mother is an active supporter and as an old person tends to live very frugally herself and can save. (..) Party workers are already the most interested in things going well for the party. Because otherwise you don’t have a job, and you have to: go and look for the next one,” says the deputy general secretary of “Vienotības”.

Interest is also aroused by cases when, in fact, at the same time, members associated with a department or party structure donate to the party or pay membership fees. For example, the Garkalne cluster – Ropažu county council member Guntars Kniksts, who is also a business development consultant in the Garkalne parish administration, and Lauris Lielbārdis, the head of this parish administration. In September 2022 and then in December, both colleagues donated one thousand euros each to “Vienotība” almost at the same time.

The declaration of the Lielbarž official shows that the more than two thousand euros paid to the party is equivalent to his average monthly income in 2022. “The fact that I work in the municipality does not mean that it is my only source of income. I have a family business for my wife, where we earn absolutely legal income and all taxes have been paid,” Lielbārdis explains. On the indication that no other income appears in his declaration, the “Vienotības” donor retorts: “Well, I’m sorry, if I had donated 100 thousand and they didn’t show up anywhere, I would probably be hanged on a pole and punished for where such an amount came from , but, I’m sorry, we’re talking about how many? For 1000 euros? Nowadays, every working person who works already does not earn less than 1000 euros. (..) Well, if you are not ready to donate, it does not mean that other people are not ready to donate.”

Lielbardis claims that the decision to donate to the party was made both times after discussing it with Kniksta. He once invited Lielbardis to join “Vienotības”, so if Kniksts calls to support something, Lielbardis listens.

The dates of the donations also coincide with those of two other “Unity” bodies, namely the representatives of the Ethics Commission – head Iveta Blaua and member Karina Ploka. Contributions measured in a few hundred or even a couple of thousand, for three years in a row – from 2020 to 2022 – at least once it happened when the dates of the contributions completely coincided. However, all this is just a coincidence, it follows from what both said.

When asked if donations are discussed at meetings of the Ethics Commission, Ploka laughs: “One day with Iveta Blau? I cannot… I cannot comment on this in any way, because we in the Ethics Commission have not looked at such issues. (..) I really can’t comment on this in any way, because I don’t know how other party members donate.” Ploka is the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Finance and was previously an advisor to the Minister of Finance, so she emphasizes that her income was sufficient and that being in the party also imposes obligations, such as donating to it.

Meanwhile, Blaua also expresses surprise at her synchronous donations with Plok – it is also a discovery for her, as they have not discussed donating to the party. Blaua, who is now a member of the Jurmala City Council again, but was not a public official for a year and a half until the end of 2022, “de facto” reveals that at that time she earned about 2 thousand per month. In Blaua’s view, donating half of a month’s salary to the party is not unusual, because she has savings, and besides, she does not spend money on trifles.

Why are there several members of the Ethics Commission among the regular big donors of the party – including Uldis Martinsons and Dace Kļaviņa – Blaua doesn’t know: “I really don’t know. I do not invite the members of the Ethics Commission to donate or anything. We come together scrupulously, consider these issues that are of an ethical nature, and then we talk about it.” Blaua, however, promises to look at the party financial database available on the KNAB website – maybe after obtaining full information, she too will have some questions.

It should be added that looking at the party’s financial database of the large – from 1,000 euro – membership fee payers over the past five years, it can be seen that “Latvia’s development” and “Vienotība” dominate, while the “Honor to serve Riga” party is in third place.