Lithuanian election body given new info on Liberals’ suspected illegal campaign funding

The news release comes as a pre-trial investigation in a political corruption case involving MG Baltic, one of Lithuania’s biggest business groups, and several political parties is drawing to a close.

Law-enforcement officials say they have established that the Liberals’ 2016 election campaign was partially financed from funds of Laisvės Studijų Centras (Centre for Liberty Studies), a think-tank whose founders include the Liberal Movement’s former leader Eligijus Masiulis and his deputy Gintaras Steponavičius, but give no details.

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Officials earlier this year provided the Central Electoral Commission with some information amid suspicions that the Liberal Movement’s campaign might have been funded through a training course organized for the party’s members by Taikomosios Politikos Institutas (Institute of Applied Politics). The election watchdog subsequently deprived the party of a six-month state grant of almost 400,000 euros for grossly violating the funding rules.

Formal suspicions have been brought against Masiulis, Steponavičius and Šarūnas Gustainis, a former member of the Liberal Movement and the founder of Taikomosios Politikos Institutas, in the political corruption case.

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