A Company In Latvia Was Fined For Offering A Bribe In Belarus
- 27.10.2026, 11:58
2.3 million euros.
In Latvia, a court ordered Squalio Group to pay 2.3 million euros in connection with a bribe paid by a former employee in Belarus. This was reported by the Latvian publication Delfi, citing the “De facto” program on a local TV channel. The director of the subsidiary Sergei Sharkov was on trial in Belarus in the “Vtyurin case”—the case involving Andrei Vtyurin, the former deputy head of the State Secretariat of the Security Council.
The Latvian IT company Squalio Group is accused of involvement in bribing a Belarusian official in 2015. According to the prosecution, the money was handed over by an employee associated with the company. The company was fined 2.3 million euros. The case has already been heard by the appellate court for the second time.
In 2009, the Latvian company established a subsidiary, DPA, in Belarus. It was headed by Latvian citizen Sergey Sharkov. He held a leadership position for about ten years and resigned following a corruption scandal. The Latvian publication lsm.lv notes that Sharkov’s main task upon entering the Belarusian market was to ensure that government agencies, financial institutions, and companies transitioned to licensed software. The company’s clients included, for example, “Gazprom Transgaz Belarus” and the Belarusian Ministry of Education.
According to "Zerkalo", in 2015, Sharkov paid a bribe of $5,000 to Yury Zdanevich , director of the Belarusian Ministry of Finance’s data center , for facilitating the conclusion of procurement contracts with the company he headed. He was also linked to corruption cases involving a representative of “Belarusbank” Alexei Milovanov, the former head of the Belarusian Interbank Settlement Center Felix Kasperovich, and the former deputy head of the National Bank’s Main Directorate for Information Technology Andrei Podgorny. In these three instances, the DPA director was exempted from criminal liability. It is known that after his arrest, Sharkov wrote four confessions, thanks to which he avoided criminal liability.
Ultimately, Sharkov was found guilty only of giving bribes totaling five thousand dollars and was fined five thousand base units
Former Deputy Secretary of the Security Council Andrei Vtyurin was also a defendant in the same case; he was accused of accepting bribes.