The prosecutor’s office handed over to the court a criminal case in which Riga District Court judge Inese Silineviča, a judge’s assistant and a person unrelated to the court are accused of fraud, LETA agency found out.
The Prosecutor’s Office informed the LETA agency that as a result of the fraudulent activities of the accused persons, 137,371 euros were defrauded from the budget funds of the Court Administration.
In the case, three persons are accused of fraud in a group of persons after a prior agreement in a large amount. In addition, one person has also been accused of intentionally falsifying documents granting rights for greedy purposes and, knowing that they were forged, used them, the prosecutor’s office informed.
According to the indictment, in late 2006, an assistant judge of a district-level court offered another person to establish a fictitious employment legal relationship with the particular court. The person, aware that she will not have to perform any work duties, that tax payments will be made for the allegedly done work, agreed to her fictitious registration at work in the said court, and also agreed to the fact that she will hand over the received salary to the judge’s assistant.
The judge’s assistant repeatedly forged the person’s signature in order to prepare all the necessary documents for hiring the person.
Also, the judge’s assistant performed actions creating an impression of a person’s employment – forged signatures in amendments to employment contracts, prepared justifications for awarding and awarding bonuses, filled out job evaluation forms, as well as forged personal signatures in job descriptions and orders issued by the Court Administration, the prosecutor’s office informed.
After which, the fictitiously employed person’s work record tables were prepared, which were submitted to the Court Administration, where the responsible person, being deceived about the person’s employment, calculated and transferred the fictitiously employed person’s monthly salary, vacation benefits, cash prizes and salary bonuses to the bank account specified by her, where the transferred funds were handled by the judge’s assistant.
In 2008, when the presidents of the particular court changed, the new manager, realizing that the above-mentioned person was employed fictitiously in the court, together with his assistant agreed and decided to continue to carry out fraudulent activities, informed the prosecutor’s office.
The judge’s assistant continued to perform actions, creating an impression about the person’s employment, while the court chairperson provided false information about her employment, that is, she coordinated and approved the timesheets, as well as approved and sent proposals to the Court Administration for the awarding of monetary awards, determination of motivational allowances and an allowance for performing additional work for the fictitiously employed person.
