Lithuanian businessman, ex-owner of biggest supermarket chain in Georgia, detained in Tbilisi
TBILISI/VILNIUS. May 30 (Interfax/BNS) - Lithuanian businessman Saulius Vaitkevicius has been detained in the Tbilisi international airport, press office head of the Georgian Main Prosecutor's Office Khatuna Paychadze told reporters on Thursday.
"Lithuanian businessman Saulius Vaitkevicius has been detained over embezzling funds of a company," Paychadze said.
"The prosecutor's office will charge the detainee soon - today or tomorrow," Paychadze said.
Up until recently, Vaitkevicius was one of the owners of Ioli Supermarket, the biggest supermarket chain in Georgia. After the Populi chain was purchased in Georgia in August 2012, the Ioli Supermarket became the largest retail chain in the country.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said no hasty conclusion tying the businessman's detention with politics should be drawn.
"I would not jump to conclusions regarding political processes, we have too little information for this," the foreign minister told reporters in the Lithuanian Seimas.
"We will know more when suspicions are brought. They haven't been brought yet. We know preliminarily that they will be of economic character," Linkevicius said.
Linkevicius said that this was not the first time the businessman had brushes with the law in Georgia.
According to the information of BNS agency, a criminal case closed in April 2013, in which Vaitkevicius was a suspect, has been reopened. According to unofficial information, when Vaitkevicius sold the business, he undertook the obligation to pay $2 million to partners he allegedly did not pay.
Vaitkevicius settled in Georgia with his family and has done business since 2009.
