Vilnius court closes MG Group reputation cases as parties reach amicable settlements - BNS SPECIAL

VILNIUS – Vilnius City District Court has this week closed two business reputation disputes involving MG Group, one of Lithuania's biggest business groups, after the parties reached amicable settlements. 

The group's litigation against the state and MP Vytautas Bakas had been going on for several years, dating back to a 2018 parliamentary investigation into suspected unlawful influence by businesses on political processes.

In the dispute against the state, MG Group and others tried to prove, among other things, that the State Security Department had provided false information to the parliamentary inquiry and violated the presumption of innocence, and that the Seimas had unlawfully made public the intelligence agency's reports.

Following the investigation, the parliament concluded that the group, then named MG Baltic, posed a threat to Lithuania's national security. The business group called the probe "a political farce".

In the other dispute, MG Group contested statements by Bakas, who then headed the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, that the company's activities bore signs of an organized criminal group and that it had caused around 500 million euros in damage to the state.

Vilnius City District Court approved the amicable settlement agreements on Thursday and Friday, thus closing both cases, Aurimas Zukauskas, the court's spokesman, told BNS. 

The court's rulings can be appealed within seven days. 

Earlier this year, Vilnius Regional Court finished hearings in MG Group's political corruption case, with the verdict to be handed down on April 4.