Gintarė Skaistė () (born 4 August 1981) is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n politician,

Member of the Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas ( ; ), is the unicameralism, unicameral legislative body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of Government of Lithuania, govern ...

for Panemunė constituency. On 7 December 2020, Skaistė was approved to be the

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

in the

Šimonytė Cabinet Šimonytė Cabinet was the 18th cabinet of the national government of the Republic of Lithuania. It consisted of the former Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė who was the Head of Government, and 14 government ministers from the Homeland Union � ...

. On 12 December 2024, Rimantas Šadžius succeeded Skaistė as Minister of Finance.

Education and early career

Skaistė graduated from

Kaunas University of Technology The Kaunas University of Technology (abbreviated as KTU, ) is a public university, public research university located in Kaunas, Lithuania. Established in 1922, KTU has been seen as one of Lithuania's top science education centers. In 2021, KTU ...

in 2010, receiving a bachelor's degree in economics. She holds master's degree in economics (2011) from

Mykolas Romeris University Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) is a public university located in Vilnius, Kaunas, Marijampolė, Lithuania. It was established in 1990 as the Lithuanian Police Academy and became Mykolas Romeris University in 2004, named after Professor Mykol ...

, and a PhD of Social Sciences.SKAISTĖ GINTARĖ
. „Kas yra kas Lietuvoje 2018“. She worked at the Lithuanian Social Market Development Institute. Skaistė also is a Member of

Lithuanian Riflemen's Union The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union (LRU, ), also referred to as Šauliai (''the Riflemen''; from for ''rifleman''), is a paramilitary organization supported by the Government of Lithuania and regulated by the dedicated law. It is active in three ...

and Honorary Member of the Lithuanian Community of the Atlantic Treaty.

Political career

Since 2005 Skaistė has been a member of the

Homeland Union The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (, TS–LKD), also colloquially known as the Conservatives (), is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 members and 28 of 141 seats in the Seimas. Its current leader ...

. Between 2007 and 2016 she was member of

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

municipal council. In 2016 she was elected member of the

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas ( ; ), is the unicameralism, unicameral legislative body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of Government of Lithuania, govern ...

Controversies

Regulatory shortcomings

End of Skaistė's term as finance minister in 2024 was punctuated by greatest financial scandals to rock Lithuania for decades.

BaltCap

In February 2024 Šarūnas Stepukonis, an executive at BaltCap, a leading investment fund, was accused of having embezzled over €40m and subsequently losing them on casino bets and trading on

Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers, Inc. (IB) is an American multinational corporation, multinational brokerage firm headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, Greenwich, Connecticut. It operates the largest electronic trading platform in the United States by ...

. This resulted in

write-off A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

s by private pension funds in multiple countries. All controls by more than 10 supervisory institutions, most of them under Skaistė's ministry of finance, failed; Lithuanian regulators instead blamed, without providing evidence,

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n counterparts. BaltCap is also an investor in the family business of Gabrielius Landsbergis, the foreign minister and the wealthiest Lithuanian politician, which at the time raised concerns and official (internal revenue agency,

anti-corruption commission) investigations regarding possible irregularities, such as acquisitions of state land for €1, using state property to create private wealth and reliance of the private education business model on state subsidies. Prior to the Stepukonis debacle BaltCap was also involved in controversial large-scale public concessions in Lithuania, such as the Lithuania National Stadium and supposedly charitable rebuilding projects in Ukraine. The BaltCap investigation is led by the

European Public Prosecutor's Office The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) is an Agencies, independent bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the Euratom, independent body of the European Union (EU) with a juridical personality, established under the Treat ...

The fintechs: FoxPay, iSun, Kevin, Bitandpay

In May 2024 Lithuania was shook by a scandal where a number of Lithuanian fintech companies (FoxPay, iSun, Kevin, Bitandpay and others) were found to have laundered offshore casino and possibly drug and German brothel funds across the EU while simultaneously winning multiple (84) tenders to handle payments for Lithuanian state institutions, at 5 times the price charged to the private sector. Some of the startups maintained family relations and sponsored private jet trips to

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

for another minister, Monika Navickienė, who subsequently resigned. It turned out the regulators had been looking the other way; the minister's husband turned out to have been a paid PR agent for a convicted financial

felon A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that ...

from Russia while the

beneficial owner Beneficial may refer to: Organizations * Beneficial Corporation, a consumer finance company founded in 1914 that was ultimately bought by HSBC Corporation ** Beneficial Loan Society, the former name of Beneficial Corporation ** Beneficial Finance, ...

of some of the fintechs was

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

with a convicted financial felon from Lithuania. After the media furor, Ieva Trinkūnaitė, the beneficial owner of FoxPay, was declared to be risk to national security and told to relinquish her ownership stake and executive role. As of August 2024 most Lithuanian institutions are still using FoxPay for their taxpayer-facing payments.

Revolving door between ministry & regulated companies

Finance ministry and subordinate institutions are responsible for supervising the cryptocurrency sector. Lithuanian regulators often enjoy a

revolving door A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a central shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. To use a revolving door, a person enters the enclosure between two of the doors and then m ...

with the companies they have recently regulated, and in some cases, stints across multiple regulators and regulated companies simultaneously. For example, Saulius Galatiltis, a former

Bank of Lithuania The Bank of Lithuania () is the national central bank for Lithuania within the Eurosystem. It was the Lithuanian central bank from 1922 to 2014, albeit with a long suspension between 1940 and 1993. It issued the Lithuanian litas between 1922 ...

regulator who became head of Lithuanian branch of

Binance Binance Holdings Ltd., branded Binance, is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high-frequency trading ...

which closed following the record-breaking US prosecution of the exchange and its CEO Changpeng Zhao for money laundering, was appointed and later quietly let go by Skaistė from board of INVEGA, the taxpayper-and-EU-funded national promotional institution (a quango) providing preferential financial terms to national businesses. Galatiltis was simultaneously CEO and shareholder of FoxPay, while a wife of leading official at

Financial Crime Investigation Service The Financial Crime Investigation Service or FNTT () is a Lithuanian law enforcement agency under the Ministry of the Interior. It is primarily responsible for investigating the financial crime and money laundering. History The institution was ...

under Skaistė's ministry of finance was found to be employed as head of

regulatory compliance In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Compliance has traditionally been explained by reference to deterrence theory, according to which punishing a behavior will decrease the viol ...

at FoxPay, and the beneficial owner is daughter of a former Bank of Lithuania board member.

Deputy minister corruption allegations

In October 2024 deputy minister Rūta Bilkštytė was accused of failing to declare a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

when INVEGA, a subsidiary of the ministry, used 3 EU-cofunded venture capital funds to invest ~EUR1m in Amlyze, an anti-money laundering tech startup founded by Bilkštytė's son Gabrielius Erikas Bilkštys together with Jekaterina Govina, a former Bank of Lithuania regulator. Bilkštytė amended her interests' declaration to include her son on June 14, 2024, on the same date as the minister let go Saulius Galatiltis of Foxpay and Binance from INVEGA's board. Bilkštys had been a decade-long business partner of Vilhelmas Germanas (formerly known as Vilius Židelis), a convicted felon and key owner of Foxpay, who facilitated a private-jet Dubai vacation of Monika Navickienė, another minister who was subsequently forced to resign. Germanas was arrested for an initial term of 2 months in October 2024.

Breaking Russia sanctions

During Skaistė's tenure as minister Lithuanian fintechs and cryptocurrency companies have been accused of breaking sanctions on

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, including by both

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil s ...

and

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

Lost bid to host EU's AML Authority

In February 2024 the ministry lost its bid to host the EU's Anti-Money Laundering Authority in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

; it did not make the shortlist. Shortly after

Eurojust The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) is an agency of the European Union (EU) dealing with judicial co-operation in criminal matters among agencies of the member states. It is seated in The Hague, Netherlands. Est ...

announced discovery of a €2 billion money laundering network run by a Lithuanian financial institution.

Weak regulation, further deregulation

, EU lawmakers and the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

have severely criticized Lithuania for lax financial oversight and its part in global financial scandals such as the

Wirecard scandal The Wirecard scandal (German: ''Wirecard-Skandal'') was a series of corrupt business practices and fraudulent financial reporting that led to the insolvency of Wirecard, a payment processor and financial services provider, headquartered in Munic ...

perpetrated by a Russian spy. According to the Bank of Lithuania, as of February 2023 none of the fintech companies it supervised were compliant with regulations. At least half of the registered cryptocurrency companies are estimated to be

shell companies A shell corporation is a company or corporation with no significant assets or operations often formed to obtain financing before beginning business. Shell companies were primarily vehicles for lawfully hiding the identity of their beneficial ...

(even after regulatory action recently halving the company count). In the face of Lithuanian institutions' failure to regulate, in 2023 finance ministry and Bank of Lithuania initiated change in law that would reduce fintech fines by 30% and remove requirement for the regulator to go to court, thus further deregulating the fintech industry.

Unaccounted expenses

In 2023 Skaistė repaid €14,000 of expenses she could account for during her term in Kaunas city municipality that ended in 2016, as part of a wider expenses scandal that shook hundreds of both national and municipal level politicians, leading to some ongoing prosecutions. Some of her expenses remain unaccounted for.

Family

In 2023 the minister's husband, Audrius Skaistys, was disciplined by party organs for publicly calling striking teachers "

broiler Breed broiler is any chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') that is bred and raised specifically for meat production. Most commercial broilers reach slaughter weight between four and six weeks of age, although slower growing breeds reach slaug ...

s" and crybabies. During Skaistė's term as minister Skaistys was also implicated in an

influence peddling Influence peddling, also called traffic of influence or trading in influence, is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for ...

scandal concerning trade in government appointments by another minister,

Kęstutis Navickas Kęstutis Navickas (born January 13, 1984) is a badminton player from Lithuania. He competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Navickas was the bronze medalist at the 2015 Baku European Games in the men's singles event. Currently Nav ...

, and previously for illegally appropriating state land for his family home while serving as deputy head the Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture. In 2016 he litigated against the state after losing a competition for state employment.

Drunk driving

In 2013 Skaistė, then a council member at Kaunas city municipality, was arrested, fined and lost driving license for one year for

drunk driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is in ...

Other activities

European Union organizations

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

(EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2020) *

European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was ...

(ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (since 2020)

International organizations

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2020) *

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

(IMF), Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (since 2020) *

Nordic Investment Bank The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) is an international financial institution founded in 1975 by the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). In 2005, the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) also becam ...

(NIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2020) *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2020)Board of Governors

References

Gintarė Skaistė - Seimo nariai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skaiste, Gintare 1981 births Living people Politicians from Kaunas Women members of the Seimas Homeland Union politicians Members of the Seimas 21st-century Lithuanian politicians Ministers of finance of Lithuania Female finance ministers Women government ministers of Lithuania Mykolas Romeris University alumni Kaunas University of Technology alumni 21st-century Lithuanian women politicians