VILNIUS — A new twist has emerged over the Linas Karalius disappearance scandal, with he and his girlfriend now accused of embezzling 20,000 litai (€5,900) in state funds.

The two went on an unscheduled holiday to southeast Asia where Karalius was pictured along side some of Thailand’s infamous kathoey ladyboys. The rock star turned politician left the Seimas for nearly a month without informing his staff or party colleagues that he was going on the holiday, a fact he at first denied. Some parliament members have speculated that [private_supervisor]Karalius has a drug problem.

In a report by local daily Lietuvos Rytas, it is alleged that he and his girlfriend Gintarė Gurevičiūtė set up a company that was sponsored by the Ministry of Health and then took the money and used it to pay for their holiday. The newspaper did not cite its sources for the allegation.

The company Gyvenimas Džiaugsme (The Joy of Life) was founded by Karalius and managed by Gurevičiūtė and was supposed to teach children how to snowboard.

The company was formed, made a request for funding and received it at lightning pace because of Karalius’ connections inside the health ministry, it is alleged.

Health ministry chancellor Rimantas Remeika approved the funding on behalf of the health ministry from its strategic planning funds for 2009-2011.

Remeika told Baltic Reports that there had been no wrongdoing on the part of the ministry.

“According to the expenses report of the estimate for the budget and the invoice, presented to the Ministry of Health on Dec. 28, 2009, all allocations have been used for the children snowboard sport seminars and training as it was set in the contract,” Remeika said adding that an audit into the money’s usage is underway.

Remeika also denied that the project had received priority because of political connections.

“We can assure that the financing terms have no relation to the particular persons. In this case it relates to the season of the project. As snowboard sport has great importance only in winter, therefore they had the priority,” Remeika said.

The health ministry’s head of communications Giedrė Maksimaitytė confirmed to Baltic Reports that the money had been paid to the company and that at the time of payment all documents regarding the application were in order.

When contacted by Baltic Reports, Karalius declined to comment on the issue over the phone and requested instead to commend by email. He did not reply.

To fire or not to fire?

After Karalius returned from the trip last month he was confronted by angry colleagues and many were calling for his job.

Karalius returned his January salary back to the Seimas as a gesture of remorse, instead of the one-third amount required by law for missing so many parliamentary sessions.

Two identical committees have been set up to assess the need to fire both Karalius and his fellow National Resurrection Party parliamentarian Aleksandr Sacharuk, who illegally voted for him more than a dozen times when he was in Asia.

The committees have until May 1 to decide whether the two should be removed from parliament.

Before going into politics, the 36-year-old Karalius was a famous rock star with the group Žas, which had several hit records in Lithuania over the last decade. Karalius was voted into the Seimas in 2008 with the newly-formed National Resurrection Party, which performed third-best in the parliamentary elections. However, since then the party’s fortunes have declined with Arūnas Valinskas voted out of the Speaker of the Seimas position last year. [/private_supervisor] [private_subscription 1 month]Karalius has a drug problem.

In a report by local daily Lietuvos Rytas, it is alleged that he and his girlfriend Gintarė Gurevičiūtė set up a company that was sponsored by the Ministry of Health and then took the money and used it to pay for their holiday. The newspaper did not cite its sources for the allegation.

The company Gyvenimas Džiaugsme (The Joy of Life) was founded by Karalius and managed by Gurevičiūtė and was supposed to teach children how to snowboard.

The company was formed, made a request for funding and received it at lightning pace because of Karalius’ connections inside the health ministry, it is alleged.

Health ministry chancellor Rimantas Remeika approved the funding on behalf of the health ministry from its strategic planning funds for 2009-2011.

Remeika told Baltic Reports that there had been no wrongdoing on the part of the ministry.

“According to the expenses report of the estimate for the budget and the invoice, presented to the Ministry of Health on Dec. 28, 2009, all allocations have been used for the children snowboard sport seminars and training as it was set in the contract,” Remeika said adding that an audit into the money’s usage is underway.

Remeika also denied that the project had received priority because of political connections.

“We can assure that the financing terms have no relation to the particular persons. In this case it relates to the season of the project. As snowboard sport has great importance only in winter, therefore they had the priority,” Remeika said.

The health ministry’s head of communications Giedrė Maksimaitytė confirmed to Baltic Reports that the money had been paid to the company and that at the time of payment all documents regarding the application were in order.

When contacted by Baltic Reports, Karalius declined to comment on the issue over the phone and requested instead to commend by email. He did not reply.

To fire or not to fire?

After Karalius returned from the trip last month he was confronted by angry colleagues and many were calling for his job.

Karalius returned his January salary back to the Seimas as a gesture of remorse, instead of the one-third amount required by law for missing so many parliamentary sessions.

Two identical committees have been set up to assess the need to fire both Karalius and his fellow National Resurrection Party parliamentarian Aleksandr Sacharuk, who illegally voted for him more than a dozen times when he was in Asia.

The committees have until May 1 to decide whether the two should be removed from parliament.

Before going into politics, the 36-year-old Karalius was a famous rock star with the group Žas, which had several hit records in Lithuania over the last decade. Karalius was voted into the Seimas in 2008 with the newly-formed National Resurrection Party, which performed third-best in the parliamentary elections. However, since then the party’s fortunes have declined with Arūnas Valinskas voted out of the Speaker of the Seimas position last year. [/private_subscription 1 month] [private_subscription 4 months]Karalius has a drug problem.

In a report by local daily Lietuvos Rytas, it is alleged that he and his girlfriend Gintarė Gurevičiūtė set up a company that was sponsored by the Ministry of Health and then took the money and used it to pay for their holiday. The newspaper did not cite its sources for the allegation.

The company Gyvenimas Džiaugsme (The Joy of Life) was founded by Karalius and managed by Gurevičiūtė and was supposed to teach children how to snowboard.

The company was formed, made a request for funding and received it at lightning pace because of Karalius’ connections inside the health ministry, it is alleged.

Health ministry chancellor Rimantas Remeika approved the funding on behalf of the health ministry from its strategic planning funds for 2009-2011.

Remeika told Baltic Reports that there had been no wrongdoing on the part of the ministry.

“According to the expenses report of the estimate for the budget and the invoice, presented to the Ministry of Health on Dec. 28, 2009, all allocations have been used for the children snowboard sport seminars and training as it was set in the contract,” Remeika said adding that an audit into the money’s usage is underway.

Remeika also denied that the project had received priority because of political connections.

“We can assure that the financing terms have no relation to the particular persons. In this case it relates to the season of the project. As snowboard sport has great importance only in winter, therefore they had the priority,” Remeika said.

The health ministry’s head of communications Giedrė Maksimaitytė confirmed to Baltic Reports that the money had been paid to the company and that at the time of payment all documents regarding the application were in order.

When contacted by Baltic Reports, Karalius declined to comment on the issue over the phone and requested instead to commend by email. He did not reply.

To fire or not to fire?

After Karalius returned from the trip last month he was confronted by angry colleagues and many were calling for his job.

Karalius returned his January salary back to the Seimas as a gesture of remorse, instead of the one-third amount required by law for missing so many parliamentary sessions.

Two identical committees have been set up to assess the need to fire both Karalius and his fellow National Resurrection Party parliamentarian Aleksandr Sacharuk, who illegally voted for him more than a dozen times when he was in Asia.

The committees have until May 1 to decide whether the two should be removed from parliament.

Before going into politics, the 36-year-old Karalius was a famous rock star with the group Žas, which had several hit records in Lithuania over the last decade. Karalius was voted into the Seimas in 2008 with the newly-formed National Resurrection Party, which performed third-best in the parliamentary elections. However, since then the party’s fortunes have declined with Arūnas Valinskas voted out of the Speaker of the Seimas position last year. [/private_subscription 4 months] [private_subscription 1 year]Karalius has a drug problem.

In a report by local daily Lietuvos Rytas, it is alleged that he and his girlfriend Gintarė Gurevičiūtė set up a company that was sponsored by the Ministry of Health and then took the money and used it to pay for their holiday. The newspaper did not cite its sources for the allegation.

The company Gyvenimas Džiaugsme (The Joy of Life) was founded by Karalius and managed by Gurevičiūtė and was supposed to teach children how to snowboard.

The company was formed, made a request for funding and received it at lightning pace because of Karalius’ connections inside the health ministry, it is alleged.

Health ministry chancellor Rimantas Remeika approved the funding on behalf of the health ministry from its strategic planning funds for 2009-2011.

Remeika told Baltic Reports that there had been no wrongdoing on the part of the ministry.

“According to the expenses report of the estimate for the budget and the invoice, presented to the Ministry of Health on Dec. 28, 2009, all allocations have been used for the children snowboard sport seminars and training as it was set in the contract,” Remeika said adding that an audit into the money’s usage is underway.

Remeika also denied that the project had received priority because of political connections.

“We can assure that the financing terms have no relation to the particular persons. In this case it relates to the season of the project. As snowboard sport has great importance only in winter, therefore they had the priority,” Remeika said.

The health ministry’s head of communications Giedrė Maksimaitytė confirmed to Baltic Reports that the money had been paid to the company and that at the time of payment all documents regarding the application were in order.

When contacted by Baltic Reports, Karalius declined to comment on the issue over the phone and requested instead to commend by email. He did not reply.

To fire or not to fire?

After Karalius returned from the trip last month he was confronted by angry colleagues and many were calling for his job.

Karalius returned his January salary back to the Seimas as a gesture of remorse, instead of the one-third amount required by law for missing so many parliamentary sessions.

Two identical committees have been set up to assess the need to fire both Karalius and his fellow National Resurrection Party parliamentarian Aleksandr Sacharuk, who illegally voted for him more than a dozen times when he was in Asia.

The committees have until May 1 to decide whether the two should be removed from parliament.

Before going into politics, the 36-year-old Karalius was a famous rock star with the group Žas, which had several hit records in Lithuania over the last decade. Karalius was voted into the Seimas in 2008 with the newly-formed National Resurrection Party, which performed third-best in the parliamentary elections. However, since then the party’s fortunes have declined with Arūnas Valinskas voted out of the Speaker of the Seimas position last year. [/private_subscription 1 year]

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