Antanas Kandrotas, nicknamed Cellophane, who is on trial in the Riots near the Seimas case, remains sentenced to a year and ten months in prison, which is a real prison sentence.
This punishment is for fraud, embezzlement, fraudulent and negligent accounting.
On Monday, the Court of Appeal rejected the convict's appeal as unfounded and upheld the prison sentence previously imposed by the Kaunas District Court. In this case, the court of first instance announced the verdict in December 2022.
After the verdict of the Court of Appeal, the sentence entered into force immediately.
Half an hour after the announcement in this case, the Court of Appeal announced another verdict against A. Kandrots in another case of financial crimes, in which A. Kandrots was sentenced to one year and three months in prison. This sentence also took effect immediately.
"The panel believes that when a person does not draw conclusions, the court's sanctions must be stricter, only a real deprivation of liberty can change the attitude towards the law," said Virginija Liudvinavičienė, judge of the Lithuanian Court of Appeal, who announced both verdicts.
In the first case, several other persons were convicted together with A. Kandrot. Andrius Žalys was sentenced to two years in prison, the execution of his sentence was suspended for one and a half years.
The convicts requested their acquittal in appeals, claiming that the criminal law was improperly applied, the court of first instance improperly determined the factual circumstances of the case, improperly evaluated the evidence, and improperly resolved the issues of civil lawsuits.
A. Kandots said that his actions as an accomplice, helping A. Žali to commit criminal acts, were not proven in the case.
The court found that the property belonging to the company "MDK logistika" was embezzled by the joint efforts of the convicts - about 321 thousand. euros.
The courts fully satisfied the civil lawsuit filed by the company "MDK logistika", whose procedural rights were taken over by the company "Sentas" and awarded the three convicted persons 321 euros in compensation for property damage and five percent annual interest on the awarded amount, counting from the date of the judgment until the full compensation of damages .
Fictitious accounting documents of eight other companies were used in misappropriating the company's assets, defrauding the state and "Sodra" budget by not paying personal income tax and other contributions related to employment relations, as well as value added tax, fraudulently managing the accounting of this company.
The author is Ingrida Steniulienė
