Prosecutors seek to uphold four-year prison sentence for Antanas Kandrotas in tax fraud case

Lithuanian prosecutors have called for a four-year prison sentence against businessman Antanas Kandrotas, known as Celofanas, to stand in a high-profile tax evasion case, LRT reports.

The Lithuanian Court of Appeal reviewed the case on Monday, examining charges against Kandrotas and two co-defendants for fraud, illegal handling of excise goods, false accounting, and tax evasion linked to fuel trading. A three-judge panel will deliver its verdict in May, with the ruling taking immediate effect.

Kandrotas, participating remotely, requested a delay, arguing that the court should await evidence from a related trial in Germany. Judges rejected the motion, stating Lithuanian courts could assess the case independently without waiting for a foreign ruling.

During the hearing, Kandrotas dismissed the charges as baseless, claiming prosecutors lacked evidence. “This case is about nothing—there’s no proof. An expert said I didn’t transport [the goods], so why ignore that?” he argued, referencing a prior acquittal by the Supreme Court after he had already served time in Marijampolė prison.

When a judge questioned whether his remarks constituted a threat, Kandrotas replied that he faced daily threats himself. He later shifted focus to geopolitics, suggesting an impending Russian attack would render legal proceedings irrelevant. The judge redirected him to the case at hand.

Kandrotas’ defense attorney, Jolanta Teresė Litvinskienė, urged the court to overturn the 2023 Kaunas Regional Court conviction. Prosecutor Jūratė Radišauskienė, however, insisted the original verdict was sound, citing deliberate falsification of records, cash transactions, and fictitious documents to evade over €1.5 million in taxes.

“The accounting was fraudulent—documents were destroyed or hidden. Kandrotas effectively controlled the company despite not being its formal director,” Radišauskienė stated, dismissing his claims as a defensive tactic to avoid accountability.

The Kaunas Regional Court’s 2023 ruling partially upheld civil claims by the State Tax Inspectorate, ordering Kandrotas and co-defendant Romualdas Jablonskas to pay €571,000 in unpaid VAT. The sentence has not yet been enforced pending appeals.