Gintautas Paluckas

Gintautas Paluckas is a Lithuanian politician and former Prime Minister who resigned in 2025 following a series of investigative reports, criminal probes, and public protests. In 2012, Paluckas was convicted of abuse of office while serving as the director of the Vilnius City Municipality Administration for illegally favoring a bidder in a pest control procurement contract. He was given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay compensation, a debt he did not fully settle until July 2025. In 2025, following investigative reports by Siena and Laisvės TV, Paluckas faced allegations of illicit enrichment and abuse of office. Investigators, including the Special Investigation Service (STT), suspect he and his wife acquired nearly 344,600 euros in assets through unexplained income between 2010 and 2024. In April 2025, authorities seized his and his wife’s apartments. The Lithuanian Parliament voted 93–2 to strip him of his immunity, and he has been formally charged with illicit enrichment. Other controversies during his tenure included: A 200,000 euro preferential loan granted to his company, Garnis, by the state-owned ILTE Bank while he was Prime Minister. Allegations of a conflict of interest regarding a 2018 municipal purchase of a building from a company linked to a personal friend and business associate, Darijus Vilčinskas. Receiving a 200,000 euro personal loan from his own company, Emus, an arrangement experts described as atypical and problematic. Purchasing a Vilnius apartment in 2012 at a significant discount from a Cyprus-based firm. Concerns regarding loans his company, Sagerta, received from a firm with opaque ownership and links to a sanctioned Belarusian oligarch. Paluckas has consistently denied wrongdoing, labeling the investigations a coordinated attack by political rivals, though he resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party in the wake of these revelations.