Prosecutors trace mayor’s expense receipt to hearse fuel
Wednesday 4th November 2026 on 14:45 in
Lithuania
Prosecutors and Lithuania’s Special Investigation Service found that Birštonas Mayor Nijolė Dirginčienė included in her expense reports a receipt for fuel poured into a hearse belonging to Šilutės komunalininkas, a company that provides municipal and funeral services, LRT reported.
The finding emerged on Wednesday at a hearing in the Lithuanian Court of Appeal in Vilnius. Prosecutor Darius Valkavičius told the court the company had the receipt but could not identify who was driving the hearse at the time. He said the company’s director would be called to testify.
Investigators had previously been unable to identify the owners of 11 bank cards. The prosecutor said they had now identified the owners of all but two cards, issued by banks in Switzerland and Austria.
A Kaunas Regional Court acquitted Dirginčienė in January, finding there was insufficient evidence that she had improperly used public funds. It said she could have made an honest mistake and that the pretrial investigation had been incomplete. Valkavičius appealed the ruling.
According to the case file, in 2019 and 2020 Dirginčienė paid for fuel using 27 bank cards. Receipts belonging to her husband, two sons, daughter-in-law, a fellow Social Democratic councillor and the councillor’s sister, who works for the municipality, were included in her expense claims.
The Court of Appeal heard testimony on Wednesday from a municipal budget and accounting department employee, Dirginčienė’s husband and her daughter-in-law. The prosecutor has asked the court to summon additional cardholders whose receipts were included in the mayor’s reports.
Dirginčienė told ELTA after the hearing that she was shocked by the prosecutor’s account and could not explain it without checking the dates. She said she was from Šilutė and still visited her hometown.
Dirginčienė, who has suspended her membership in the Social Democratic Party, is accused of misappropriating more than 6,300 euros in municipal funds. She has repaid more than 5,000 euros, and the prosecutor is seeking nearly 678 euros more. He has asked the court to convict her of misappropriation, fraud and document forgery, impose a 10,000-euro fine and bar her from elected or appointed municipal posts for four years.