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Gintarė Skaistė

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Gintarė Skaistė
Skaistė in 2023
Minister for Finance
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 December 2020
Prime MinisterIngrida Šimonytė
Preceded byVilius Šapoka
Member of the Seimas
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 November 2020
Preceded byAurelijus Veryga
ConstituencyPanemunė
In office
14 November 2016 – 12 November 2020
ConstituencyMulti-member
Personal details
Born (1981-08-04) 4 August 1981 (age 43)
Kaunas, Lithuania
Political partyHomeland Union
SpouseAudrius Skaistys
Children2
Alma materKaunas University of Technology
Mykolas Romeris University

Gintarė Skaistė (née Šimonytė) (born 4 August 1981) is a Lithuanian politician, Member of the Seimas for Panemunė constituency.

On 7 December 2020, Skaistė was approved to be the Minister of Finance in the Šimonytė Cabinet.[1]

Education and early career

Skaistė graduated from Kaunas University of Technology in 2010, receiving a bachelor's degree in economics. She holds master's degree in economics (2011) from Mykolas Romeris University, and a PhD of Social Sciences.[2]

She worked at the Lithuanian Social Market Development Institute. Skaistė also is a Member of Lithuanian Riflemen's Union and Honorary Member of the Lithuanian Community of the Atlantic Treaty.[2][3]

Political career

Since 2005 Skaistė has been a member of the Homeland Union. Between 2007 and 2016 she was member of Kaunas municipal council. In 2016 she was elected member of the Seimas.[4]

Controversies

Regulatory shortcomings

End of Skaistė's term as finance minister in 2024 was punctuated by greatest financial scandals to rock Lithuania for decades.

BaltCap

In February 2024 Šarūnas Stepukonis, an executive at BaltCap, a leading investment fund, was accused of having embezzled over €40m and subsequently losing them on casino bets and trading on Interactive Brokers.[5] This resulted in write-offs[6] by private pension funds in multiple countries. All controls by more than 10 supervisory institutions, most of them under Skaistė's ministry of finance, failed; Lithuanian regulators instead blamed, without providing evidence, Estonian counterparts.

BaltCap is also an investor[7] in the family business of Gabrielius Landsbergis, the foreign minister and the wealthiest[8] Lithuanian politician, which at the time raised concerns and official (internal revenue agency, Seimas anti-corruption commission) investigations regarding possible irregularities, such as acquisitions of state land for €1, using state property to create private wealth[9] and reliance of the private education business model on state subsidies. Prior to the Stepukonis debacle BaltCap was also involved in controversial large-scale public concessions in Lithuania, such as the Lithuania National Stadium[10] and supposedly charitable rebuilding projects in Ukraine.[11]

The BaltCap investigation is led by the European Public Prosecutor's Office.[12]

The fintechs: FoxPay, iSun, Kevin, Bitandpay

In May 2024 Lithuania was shook by a scandal where a number of Lithuanian fintech companies (FoxPay, iSun, Kevin, Bitandpay and others) were found to have laundered offshore casino and possibly drug[13] and German brothel funds across the EU[14] while simultaneously winning multiple (84) tenders to handle payments for Lithuanian state institutions, at 5 times the price charged to the private sector.[15]

Some of the startups maintained family relations and sponsored private jet trips to Dubai for another minister, Monika Navickienė, who subsequently resigned. It turned out the regulators had been looking the other way; the minister's husband turned out to have been a paid PR agent for a convicted financial felon from Russia[16] while the beneficial owner of some of the fintechs was cohabiting with a convicted financial felon from Lithuania.[17]

After the media furor, Ieva Trinkūnaitė, the beneficial owner of FoxPay, was declared to be risk to national security and told to relinquish her ownership stake and executive role. As of August 2024 most Lithuanian institutions are still using FoxPay for their taxpayer-facing payments.

Revolving door between ministry & regulated companies

Finance ministry and subordinate institutions are responsible for supervising the cryptocurrency sector.

Lithuanian regulators often enjoy a revolving door[18] with the companies they have recently regulated, and in some cases, stints across multiple regulators and regulated companies simultaneously.

For example, Saulius Galatiltis, a former Bank of Lithuania regulator who became head of Lithuanian branch of Binance[18] which closed following the record-breaking US prosecution[19] of the exchange and its CEO Changpeng Zhao[20] for money laundering, was appointed and later quietly let go[21] by Skaistė from board of INVEGA, the taxpayper-and-EU-funded national promotional institution (a quango) providing preferential financial terms to national businesses. Galatiltis was simultaneously CEO and shareholder of FoxPay,[22] while a wife of leading official at Financial Crime Investigation Service under Skaistė's ministry of finance was found to be employed as head of regulatory compliance at FoxPay,[23] and the beneficial owner is daughter of a former Bank of Lithuania board member.[24]

Deputy minister corruption allegations

In October 2024 deputy minister Rūta Bilkštytė was accused[25] of failing to declare a conflict of interest when INVEGA, a subsidiary of the ministry, used 3 EU-cofunded venture capital funds to invest ~EUR1m in Amlyze, an anti-money laundering tech startup founded by Bilkštytė's son Gabrielius Erikas Bilkštys together with Jekaterina Govina, a former Bank of Lithuania regulator. Bilkštytė amended her interests' declaration to include her son on June 14, 2024, on the same date as the minister let go Saulius Galatiltis of Foxpay and Binance from INVEGA's board. Bilkštys had been a decade-long business partner[26] of Vilhelmas Germanas (formerly known as Vilius Židelis), a convicted felon and key owner of Foxpay, who facilitated a private-jet Dubai vacation of Monika Navickienė, another minister who was subsequently forced to resign. Germanas was arrested[27] for an initial term of 2 months in October 2024.

Breaking Russia sanctions

During Skaistė's tenure as minister Lithuanian fintechs and cryptocurrency companies have been accused of breaking sanctions on Russia, including by both Transparency International[28] and Reuters.[29]

Lost bid to host EU's AML Authority

In February 2024 the ministry lost its bid to host the EU's Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Vilnius; it did not make the shortlist. Shortly after Eurojust announced discovery of a €2 billion money laundering network run by a Lithuanian financial institution.[30]

Weak regulation, further deregulation

Transparency International,[31] EU lawmakers[32] and the Financial Times[33] have severely criticized Lithuania for lax financial oversight and its part in global financial scandals such as the Wirecard scandal[34] perpetrated by a Russian spy.[35]

According to the Bank of Lithuania, as of February 2023 none of the fintech companies it supervised were compliant with regulations.[36] At least half of the registered cryptocurrency companies are estimated to be shell companies[37] (even after regulatory action recently halving the company count).

In the face of Lithuanian institutions' failure to regulate, in 2023 finance ministry and Bank of Lithuania initiated change in law that would reduce fintech fines by 30% and remove requirement for the regulator to go to court,[38] thus further deregulating the fintech industry.

Unaccounted expenses

In 2023 Skaistė repaid[39] €14,000 of expenses she could account for during her term in Kaunas city municipality that ended in 2016, as part of a wider expenses scandal that shook hundreds of both national and municipal level politicians, leading to some ongoing prosecutions. Some of her expenses remain unaccounted for.

Family

In 2023 the minister's husband, Audrius Skaistys, was disciplined by party organs for publicly calling striking teachers "broilers" and crybabies.[40] During Skaistė's term as minister Skaistys was also implicated in an influence peddling scandal concerning trade in government appointments by another minister, Kęstutis Navickas,[41] and previously for illegally appropriating state land for his family home while serving as deputy head the Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture.[42] In 2016 he litigated against the state after losing a competition for state employment.[43]

Drunk driving

In 2013 Skaistė, then a council member at Kaunas city municipality, was arrested, fined and lost driving license for one year for drunk driving.[44]

Other activities

European Union organizations

International organizations

References

  1. ^ "President approves makeup of Simonyte Cabinet". DELFI. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  2. ^ a b SKAISTĖ GINTARĖ Archived 8 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine. „Kas yra kas Lietuvoje 2018“.
  3. ^ "Gintarė Skaistė | Tema".
  4. ^ "Gintarė Skaistė - Seimo nariai". Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Stepukonis embezzled €40.4m from BaltCap fund, investigation finds". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Prarasti milijonai? "BaltCap" problemos su Stepukoniu nurėžė dalį Estijos pensijų fondų lėšų". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  7. ^ ""BaltCap" investuoja 11 mln. eurų į A.Landsbergienės mokyklos projektą Vilniuje". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  8. ^ "Turtingiausios tarp ministrų – G. Landsbergio, D. Kreivio šeimos". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Konservatorių kandidatų skandalai: sklypas už vieną eurą, seksualinis priekabiavimas ir vairavimas neblaiviai". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  10. ^ "Vilnius National Stadium in the balance as developer seeks outside investors – media". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  11. ^ ""BaltCap" traukiasi iš mokyklos Bučoje projekto". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  12. ^ "Lithuania: EPPO conducts searches in investigation into misappropriation of funds from BaltCap Infrastructure Fund". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  13. ^ "Žiniasklaida: Trinkūnaitė aiškinasi dėl sandorio su įtariamuoju narkomafijos byloje". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  14. ^ "Several Lithuanian fintech cos named in illegal e-gambling scheme – media". 16 May 2024. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  15. ^ "STT pradėjo ikiteisminį tyrimą dėl galimai neskaidrios "Foxpay" veiklos". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  16. ^ "M. Navickienės vyro verslas teikė paslaugas Rusijos finansiniam nusikaltėliui". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  17. ^ "Žiniasklaida: Trinkūnaitė slėpė ryšius su Germanu, stabdo Lietuvos banko veiksmus". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  18. ^ a b "Crypto giant Binance commingled customer funds and company revenue, former insiders say". Reuters. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  19. ^ "Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  20. ^ "Binance crypto founder Zhao sentenced to four months in prison". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  21. ^ "Regarding the Dismissal of a Member of the Supervisory Board". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  22. ^ "Žiniasklaida: paaiškėjo, kas naujieji "Foxpay" akcininkai". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  23. ^ "Aukšto FNTT pareigūno sutuoktinė dirba "Foxpay" finansų vadove". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  24. ^ "Valdas Trinkūnas". Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  25. ^ "Seimo komisija nenagrinės finansų viceministrės nedeklaruotų ryšių=21 Oct 2024".
  26. ^ "Konservatorių finansų viceministrės sūnus – buvęs Vilhelmo Germano verslo partneris". Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  27. ^ "Foxpay's owner, her partner and ex-minister's husband detained – media". Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  28. ^ "NEW INVESTIGATION HIGHLIGHTS MAJOR RUSSIAN DIRTY MONEY RISK AT CRYPTO PAYMENT PROVIDERS". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  29. ^ "How crypto giant Binance built ties to a Russian FSB-linked agency". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  30. ^ "Full-scale action against EUR 2 billion money laundering network via Lithuanian financial institution" (Press release). 27 February 2024. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  31. ^ "Tyrimas: "fintech" priežiūrai Lietuvoje trūksta lėšų, didžiausią riziką kelia kriptovaliutų įmonės". Verslo žinios. 3 June 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  32. ^ "EU policymakers round on Lithuania for lax fintech oversight". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  33. ^ "Lithuanian central bank rebuffs Wirecard criticism". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  34. ^ "Lithuania revokes licence of fintech implicated in Wirecard scandal". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  35. ^ "Wirecard fugitive helped run Russian spy operations across Europe". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  36. ^ "Lietuvos bankas: 15 elektroninių pinigų ir mokėjimo įstaigų neatitinka reikalavimų". LRT (in Lithuanian). 22 February 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  37. ^ "Krėpšta: pusė kriptobendrovių turi fiktyvių įmonių požymių". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  38. ^ "Lietuvos bankas siūlo sukurti taikių susitarimų su rinkos dalyviais institutą: baudos galėtų sumažėti 30 proc". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  39. ^ "G.Skaistė Kauno savivaldybei grąžino dalį išmokų, gautų dirbant taryboje – 14 tūkst. eurų". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  40. ^ "TS-LKD Priežiūros komitetas Skaisčiui skyrė įspėjimą ir metus laiko uždraudė dalyvauti rinkimuose". Delfi. 25 September 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  41. ^ Janonis, Tomas (16 March 2023). "Slaptame garso įraše Navicko patarėjas prekiauja prabangiais postais: sąlygos "afigienos"". Delfi (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  42. ^ Janonis, Tomas (8 August 2018). "Įtakingas konservatorius atsidūrė pareigūnų akiratyje: dėl visko kaltas tėtis". Delfi (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  43. ^ "Kadenciją baigęs Vyriausybės atstovas Vilniaus apskrityje kreipėsi į teismą dėl konkurso". Delfi (in Lithuanian). 23 February 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  44. ^ "Neblaivi prie vairo sėdusi Kauno tarybos konservatorė Gintarė Skaistė metus negalės vairuoti ir turės sumokėti tūkstančio litų baudą". Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  45. ^ Board of Governors European Investment Bank (EIB).
  46. ^ Board of Governors European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
  47. ^ Board of Governors European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
  48. ^ Board of Governors International Monetary Fund (IMF).
  49. ^ Board of Governors Nordic Investment Bank (NIB).
  50. ^ Board of Governors World Bank.
Seimas
Preceded by Member of the Seimas for Panemunė
2020–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Finance
2020–present 		Incumbent
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