Lithuanian company Aviabaltika will receive over 1 million euro to refurbish a helicopter owned by the Interior Ministry of Romania, thus reaching 8.5 million euro in contracts with the Romanian state.

The company is owned by Yury Borisovas, a Russian businessman who’s been accused of breaching an embargo imposed on Sudan and involved in the impeachment of Lithuanian President Roland Paksas.

The latest contract concluded between Aviabaltika in Romania was signed by a special aviation unit of the Interior Ministry. The tender for major mending operations on an MI-17 helicopter had Aviabaltika as the only bidder.

According to Romanian governmental sources, the company won all tenders for such operations that have been launched by the Romanian Interior Ministry for the past several years. The contracts amounted to 7 million euro.

Aviabaltika has also earned some 1.5 million euro from contracts with several others Romanian state-owned companies including Romtehnica, Romavia (both controlled by the Defense Ministry), Logistic Import (controlled by the Romanian Intelligence Service) and Romaero (controlled by the Economy Ministry).

The contracts have been attributed to Aviabaltika since 1995, meaning both before and after the huge Lithuanian scandal in which Borisovas was involved. The links between him and President Roland Paskas led to Paskas’ dismissal as head of state by the Lithuanian Parliament. Borisovas was the main contributor to Paksas’ electoral campaign.

Legislators in Vilnius established that the head of state offered borisovas Lithuanian citizenship illegally.