Former army food warehouse chief gets probation instead of prison for fraud

The Riga Regional Court has convicted Kaminska, who headed a food warehouse of Latvia's National Armed Forces (NBS). She was found guilty of malicious abuse of official position, document forgery and fraud connected with army food procurement. Instead of the prison term set by the first-instance court, she received probation supervision and the confiscation of a car.

The sentence

Probation supervision was set at almost four years. Because time spent in detention was also counted, the actual period to be served is three years and 11 months. The ruling can be appealed to the cassation instance within ten working days. The full decision will be available on 24 November.

Earlier, Kaminska and her defence lawyer, sworn advocate Līga Cīrule, had appealed the Riga District Court's verdict. They asked for the four-year prison term and one year of probation to be overturned and for a sentence not involving actual imprisonment.

How the scheme worked

Publicly available information indicates that Kaminska worked in the food warehouse of a food supply group within the supply company of the NBS Support Command's Third Regional Support Centre. According to the prosecutor's office, between 15 March 2022 and 1 March 2023 she told representatives of a supplier which goods and quantities the army actually needed delivered. She also instructed them which goods not to deliver but to list fictitiously as delivered on delivery notes.

The company is long-standing army food supplier SIA Lanekss, which has already been sentenced in a separate case. Kaminska was charged together with two private individuals, whose criminal case has been separated, with forging 169 delivery notes. She submitted them to the NBS accounting department for payment, and 113,519 euros were transferred to the company's bank account.