Cavan resident acquitted of money laundering charges
Jessica Magee
Two men, one of them a Cavan Town resident, accused of handling €45,550 in laundered money have been acquitted at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court by direction of the trial judge.
Audronis Bieliauskas (28) and Deividas Petrauskas (31) walked free from court following an almost three-week trial marked by days of complex legal wrangling.
Judge Patricia Ryan noted the case was the first prosecution taken under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act 2010.
She told the jurors that if the case had continued, she would have had to explain to them the legal principles of the presumption of innocence and the benefit of doubt.
Judge Ryan said it would not have been possible for a jury to decide, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr Petrauskas and Mr Bieliauskas knew, believed or were reckless as to whether the cash they possessed was the proceeds of crime.
She thanked the jurors for their service and assured them that nothing could have been done without their presence.
Mr Petrauskas, of Oak Manor, Drumgola Wood, Co Cavan, and Mr Bieliauskas, of Crosby Road, Forest Gate, London, both pleaded not guilty to possessing the laundered money on October 15, 2010.
During the trial, the court heard that €45,500 in cash was found in various bundles wrapped in clothing in Mr Bieliauskas' luggage at Dublin Airport, as he was about to board a flight to Amsterdam.
When questioned by gardaí, Mr Bieliauskas said the bag contained €5,000, then €20,000 before finally admitting the actual amount.
Detective Garda Richard Lynch told Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that Mr Bieliauskas had admitted lying at the airport.
“I was in shock, so I tell one story, then another story,” Mr Bieliauskas told gardaí.
He said Mr Petrauskas had loaned him the money so that he could buy used cars in Amsterdam from two men that he identified only by their Christian names.
Both accused told gardaí that they had been friends for over ten years and had worked together as car dealers in Lithuania.
When Mr Petrauskas was arrested, he claimed the money was his “life-savings” that he had put by, bit by bit, over six years working as a driver for Cavan Waste Disposal Ltd.
Mr Petrauskas said the deal was he would be paid back in a month and would also receive a car.
A forensic accountant from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation said she did not believe Mr Petrauskas could have saved €44,550 from his declared salary as he “spent more than he earned”.
Mr Petrauskas earned between €20,000 and €26,000 at Cavan Waste Disposal during the period 2004 to 2010.
The court heard details of numerous large payments lodged to Mr Petrauskas' bank account from overseas, which in 2006 amounted to almost triple his annual salary.
The court also heard of an email sent from Mr Petrauskas to Mr Bieliaskas containing instructions on what to tell the authorities.
Mr Petrauskas agreed that the purpose of his email was so that they both would have “the same story”.