A Latvian crime gang defrauded the 2010 Winter Olympics of up to CAD 2 million by using stolen credit cards to buy tickets for the event, officials in Vancouver have confirmed.

Canadian media reported May 19 that as many as 30 Latvian nationals may have been involved in the February scheme. However, only three were arrested and charged with fraud. A total of 218 individuals sold their tickets to the scammers.

The fraud was uncovered when Visa notified Olympics officials about unusual activity involving credit cards issued in Latvia that were being used to buy tickets on the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s (VANOC) fan-to-fan Internet site.

Twenty-year-old Artūrs Abroskins, 30-year-old Andris Stuks and 32-year-old Māris Avens were all charged with fraud over CAD 5,000.

Abroskins, according to Vancouver Provincial Court records, made his initial appearance Feb. 25 on two counts of fraud. He was found guilty March 19 and sentenced to three months in jail. However, he served only 23 days before being ordered to be deported.

Stuks, charged with four counts of fraud, made his initial appearance Feb. 27 and was found guilty March 26. He was sentenced to one day in jail and one month of probation. Stuks also was ordered deported.

Charges against Avens were stayed, according to media reports.

The three are suspected by Vancouver police to have been part of a larger group of Latvians flown in from the United Kingdom to work the scam, according to media reports.

The individuals who sold their tickets to the Latvians will be reimbursed, but that will be at VANOC’s expense. Officials are still trying to determine whether VANOC will be able to recoup the loss.

A Vienna-based press freedom watchdog group says it is alarmed by the recent police raid on a Latvian journalist’s apartment in Rīga.

The home of Latvian State Television reporter Ilze Nagla was searched May 11 as police looked for evidence regarding the hacker “Neo,” who in recent months had revealed embarrassing information taken from the National Revenue Service’s computer system. Nagla had broken the story of the hacker, who since has been arrested and identified as Ilmārs Poikāns, a researcher affiliated with the University of Latvia’s Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Police confiscated Nagla’s computer and storage media, according to news reports.

In a statement published May 18, the International Press Institute said it is “alarmed by the apparent disregard for source protection laws and press freedom demonstrated by the Latvian police in their investigation into the leak.”

According to reports, Poikāns had contacted Nagla with information about what he had found thanks to a security gap on the revenue service’s server. Using the name Neo and claiming to represent the People’s Army of the Fourth Awakening (4. Atmodas tautas armija), Poikāns also provided links to the data through a Twitter account.

His identity, however, did not become public until after the search of Nagla’s apartment.

“It is vital that investigative journalists seeking to provide the public with information be allowed to keep their sources confidential,” IPI Director David Dadge said in a statement published on the group’s website. “The search of Ilze Nagla’s house appears to be in blatant contradiction not only with the Latvian Press Act, but with the universal principle of a free media.”

A spokesperson for the Latvian Ministry of Interior said May 13 that the raid was not meant to uncover the journalist’s source, because police already knew the identity of Neo. Rather, the search of Nagla’s apartment was meant to uncover information regarding illegally obtained data about taxpayers.

Latvia typically ranks high on ratings of press freedom, but the search of Nagla’s apartment is at least the third incident this year that has raised concerns of watchdog groups. In January, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders condemned the ransacking by unknown intruders of the offices of Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze. The organization in April was “stunned” to learn of the apparent contract killing of Grigorijs Ņemcovs, publisher of the newspaper Million in Daugavpils.

As part of an effort to boost participation in the October parliamentary election in Latvia, mobile passport centers this summer will visit Latvian communities in the United States and Canada, the Latvian embassies in both countries have announced.

Specialists from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs are expected to visit Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and Cleveland in the U.S. and Toronto, Hamilton, Montréal, Vancouver and Edmonton in Canada. The specialists are planning to visit the U.S. cities in late June and July, and the Canadian cities in July.

In order to vote by mail or in person, Latvian citizens must present a valid Latvian passport.

Latvia’s ambassador to the United States, Andrejs Pildegovičs, speaking May 16 to the Latvian community in Minneapolis, said the mobile passport centers will allow citizens who need new or renewed passports to be prepared for the Saeima election.

Jānis Kukainis, public affairs director for the American Latvian Association, was instrumental in convincing Latvian government officials to put together a plan for the mobile units, Pildegovičs said.

It would be ideal to get at least 40 persons per location using the mobile passport stations, the ambassador told the Minneapolis audience.

To help Latvian officials determine the scope of the mobile passport registry plan, the embassies are asking those who might use the stations to provide the following information by June 15:

• Name.
• Personal identification code.
• Height in centimeters.
• Whether it is desired to have one’s nationality noted in the passport.
• If desired, information about minor children, including name, personal ID code or birthdate.
• If it is desired to have the historical or original form of one’s surname noted in the passport, information about what documents give evidence of the surname.
• At which mobile passport center the documentation will be submitted.
• In case of questions, a telephone number or e-mail address.

The information may be sent to the embassy in Washington (Embassy of Latvia, 2306 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20008, or via e-mail, consulate.usa@mfa.gov.lv) or in Ottawa (Embassy of Latvia, 350 Sparks St., Suite 1200, Ottawa, ON K1R 7S8, or via e-mail to consulate.canada@mfa.gov.lv).

Those who use the mobile passport centers will receive the new biometric passports. Holders of the older open-ended passports will be able to use them to vote in the parliamentary election.