Lithuanian court tells prosecutors to ask US for more info on fraud suspect

Evaldas Rimašauskas
DELFI / Kiril Čachovskij

The Vilnius Regional Court, whose decision is not subject to appeal, gave the prosecutors two months to supply it with additional information.

“The court instructed the prosecutor to turn to the institution that issued the plea and ask it to supplement the plea with relevant data,” judge Aiva Survilienė said after the hearing, however, refused to elaborate on the finding.

The detainee’s lawyer Linas Kuprusevičius has said that the US extradition request did not contain all data required by Lithuanian laws or specify the origin of the money and the amount that he attempted to steal and the sums he actually stole. In his words, this makes it difficult to defend yourself when you don’t know what you’re charged with.

The lawyer has said he had been astonished by the poor quality of translation of the documents from English into Lithuanian. According to information in his possession, the translation was made by a translator from New York.

The business magazine Fortune has reported recently that Google and Facebook have confirmed that they fell victim to an alleged 100-million-dollar scam orchestrated by a Lithuanian citizen.

Rimašauskas was detained in mid-March and the US request for the man’s extradition reached Lithuania around a month later.

Prosecutors want Rimašausaks, 48, extradited under an international extradition treaty with the United States.

US law-enforcement officials have reportedly brought fraud, money laundering and identity theft charges against the Lithuanian citizen.

The US Department of Justice has said in a press release that Rimašauskas orchestrated the fraudulent scheme between 2013 and 2015.

“From half a world away, Evaldas Rimašauskas allegedly targeted multinational internet companies and tricked their agents and employees into wiring over 100 million US dollars to overseas bank accounts under his control,” said acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim.

In his words, some of the stolen money was returned to the US companies.
A Lithuanian court recently extended Rimašauskas’ detention for another three months, with his lawyer planning to appeal against the move.

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