Former candidate for Latvia's tax chief may face criminal probe into own business deals

Inga Kolegova, who has resumed her duties as head of the Latvian State Environmental Service after an unsuccessful bid to take the helm of the State Revenue Service last month, may face a criminal probe into her own business deals, the local media reported Thursday.

When Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola proposed Kolegova as a candidate for director-general of the State Revenue Service, politicians from Unity party, which is a member of Latvia's tripartite center-right government coalition, raised doubts about the accuracy of information provided in Kolegova's declaration of assets and income.

Last year, for instance, Kolegova received 320,000 euros (358,304 U.S. dollars) in dividends from Pallog, a company she co-owns with her brother, and then gave the money away to the brother and his other company, Cones Construction. Kolegova had declared similar transactions also in previous years.

Although Prime Minister Kucinskis assured coalition partners that he had ordered a detailed examination of Kolegova's deals and that it had revealed no illegalities, Unity refused to back Kolegova's candidacy and called for a new tender to pick Latvia's next tax chief.

After a week of political pressure and close public scrutiny, Kolegova withdrew her candidacy for the top post in the revenue service on Aug. 12. It turned out now that on the same day the State Revenue Service made a decision to forward its findings about Kolegova's business deals to the Corruption Prevention Bureau as tax officers had found irregularities and omissions in her declaration.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau, in turn, may now start a criminal investigation into Kolegova's deals after the State Revenue Service's conclusion that she had failed to provide full and correct information about sizable transactions. Endit