“I’m ready to go to court, to litigate and win and get compensation not only for the work of my lawyers in court but also for their work preparing a response to the 2016 claim. The port authority and is lawyers, in my opinion, will suffer losses which they will cause for the state by litigating in this hopeless case,” Gentvilas told BNS Lithuania.
Earlier in the day, the Port of Klaipėda announced it had filed a lawsuit against its Eugenijus Gentvilas who is also chairman of the Liberal Movement party. This is how much damage the port suffered after its failure to pay to the builders of its embankments in time.
Gentvilas received the port’s demand to pay the amount back in September, 2016.
Gentvilas believes the port’s latest and prior claims might be related to the upcoming municipal, EP and presidential elections.
The lawsuit was filed to Klaipėda Regional Court, the port’s authority said. The 1.9 million euros include the fines, interests and legal costs the port was ordered by court to pay to contractors.
The damage was caused by improper implementation of the contract the port’s authority, then led by Gentvilas, had signed with Lithuania’s Klaipėdos Hidrotechnika, Austria’s Strabag Wasserbau and Denmark’s Rohde Nielsen.
Gentvilas said back in September, 2016 that the contract with Klaipėdos Hidrotechnika was terminated due to objective reasons after the company filed bankruptcy, its accounts were frozen and bailiffs banned the port to make payments. Moreover, Klaipėdos Hidrotechnika owned the port 9 million litas (2.6 million euros), which the port failed to recoup due the company’s bankruptcy.
Gentvilas also accuses Arvydas Vaitkus, the incumbent CEO of the Port of Klaipėda, of political revenge. The latter ran for parliament in 2016, representing the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania.
Gentvilas led the Port of Klaipėda from June, 2009 to November, 2012 when he was elected into the Seimas.
In September, 2015, the Court of Appeal ruled that the embankment construction contract with Klaipėdos Hidrotechnika, Strabag Wasserbau and Rohde Nielsen was terminated due to the port authority’s fault and ordered the port to pay over 1.9 million euros to the companies.
Klaipėdos Hidrotechnika and Strabag Wasserbau had demanded over 6.26 million euros.