Lithuania asks US for legal assistance in Epstein investigation

Lithuania’s General Prosecutor’s Office has sent a legal assistance request to US law enforcement agencies as part of its criminal investigation into information contained in Jeffrey Epstein’s files, LRT reported, citing the state prosecutor’s office.

“The legal assistance request has been sent to US law enforcement authorities,” Rasa Stundžienė, a senior specialist in the prosecutor’s office’s communications division, told ELTA. The office has not disclosed what specific information it is seeking.

More than 20 people have been interviewed in the investigation, but no victims have been identified or formally recognised in the case so far, Stundžienė said. Investigators are continuing to identify people who may have been affected.

Authorities are urging potential human trafficking victims linked to the Epstein case to contact police at +370 604 68154 or the Centre for Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation at +370 679 61617.

Lithuanian names appear in the files

Lithuanian law enforcement launched the criminal investigation into possible human trafficking in February after assessing information published in Epstein’s correspondence. The General Prosecutor’s Office said a full and objective examination of the circumstances could only be carried out through a formal investigation.

The investigation is being conducted by the Panevėžys County Chief Police Commissariat and organised, coordinated and supervised by the Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

The US Department of Justice published more than three million pages of documents from Epstein’s case, along with photographs and videos, earlier this year. The documents mention Lithuania more than 1,200 times and Vilnius more than 1,000 times.

They include a 20 January 2017 request to transfer 75,000 euros to an SEB bank account registered in Lithuania. The recipient was Fors Projektai, a company controlled at the time by events organiser Valdas Petreikis.

The documents also show that NPO Baleto Teatras received 18,490 US dollars in 2018, while VSJ Baleto Teatras received a further 10,000 US dollars. The payments were made by Gratitude America MMD, a foundation headed by Epstein.

Epstein’s files also mention Petreikis’s wife, Simona Petreikė, who may have received educational support. The documents state that she was later named as a recipient of a three million US dollar inheritance following Epstein’s death.

Epstein was convicted in 2008 of sexually abusing underage girls and spent 13 months in prison. He was arrested again in 2019 and charged with human trafficking. He died by suicide in his prison cell that year.

Source: LRT and ELTA