21 people arrested in IT procurement group – even more than at a Liepāja rock concert

State police on Monday showed they can arrest as many as 21 people in one day – that's more than usually show up to a Liepāja rock concert on a winter evening! But this time the organized group wasn't playing music, but rather defrauding IT procurements worth 1.5 million euros.

Among those arrested is public procurement specialist Biders, who once created the portal "iepirkumiem.lv". Apparently he decided it's better to be on the inside of procurement rather than watching from the sidelines. Former State Digital Development Agency director Jorens Liopa and businessman Aigars Ceruss have also ended up behind bars – probably the first time in their lives they're not the main IT project managers.

In investigators' view, this organized group operated like a real rock band – each had their role and together they created "sound". Only this time it wasn't in the atmosphere of Liepāja rock traditions, where our city is Latvia's rock capital and legends are born, but rather a fraudulent scheme where "legends" were created about why a specific company won the procurement.

Local commentators in Karosta say: "Well, we sometimes manage to agree on who pays for beer, but we don't pay 1.5 million for it!" Moreover, in Riga such a sum wouldn't even be noticed – there it's one café's monthly turnover.