„First of all we have to wait for the findings of the investigation, but it cannot be ruled out that some sort of regulation may be necessary,“ the president’s adviser told the radio station Žinių radijas on Tuesday.
According to him, when shortcomings are identified they prompt authorities to consider how to improve the crowdfunding system.
It has transpired that law enforcement is investigating crowdfunding company Contribee, which was founded several years ago.
Vlogger Skirmantas Malinauskas announced Monday that the company’s former CEO Gediminas Ratkevičius had transferred EUR 130,000 from the account of charity NGO Blue/Yellow to his own account.
According to Malinauskas, Blue/Yellow login data was changed so that it would not be able to track missing funds quickly. The NGO has stated that it noticed a shortage of funds in early 2024, but Contribee returned the money and the NGO did not suffer any losses.
He believes that the incident was concealed to avoid reputational damage for both Contribee and Blue/Yellow, which collects donations for Ukraine.
Contribee’s current CEO Adrius Jakučionis told the news website delfi.lt that his predecessor Ratkevičius was dismissed after arbitrarily concluding a loan agreement with Contribee to allegedly borrow funds from the company for his personal use.
Moreover, the company was indebted EUR 73,000 to the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) but the debt has been covered since June.
The last time Contribee submitted financial reports to the Centre of Registers for the 2021 financial year. At the time, the company’s losses exceeded EUR 51,000.
It is reported that Contribee has 13 shareholders. 31.5% of shares are owned by Jakučionis, 30.34% by Ratkevičius, 16% by Mantas Michalauskas. The three established the company in 2020. 10.5% of shares are owned by investment fund Antrasis investavimo fondas, while the rest belong to minor shareholders.
Ratkevičius has since stated that he had made the biggest mistake in his life and that the only option now is to sell his shares and to fully withdraw from the project.