By Tony Halpin, Moscow
The purpose of the group is to unmask those who gutted the country,” Neo told the Latvian television current affairs programme Kas Notiek Latvija in an interview posted on its website.
Neo has been hailed as a digital Robin Hood by disgruntled Latvians after posting details from the documents on the internet to contrast the earnings of top officials with cuts experienced by other workers.
Latvia’s economy shrank by almost a fifth last year and is the weakest in the European Union. The Government slashed state salaries by up to 50 per cent and raised taxes in return for an EU-led bailout that saved the country from bankruptcy as revenues slumped and unemployment jumped to 23 per cent.
Neo published the salaries of Latvian police chiefs and urged rank-and-file officers to “analyse the data and determine whether the salary reform is fair”. Another leak showed the pay of managers of a bank that was bailed out, revealing that many did not keep promises they made to cut their salaries.
The chief executive of the state-run heating company in the capital Riga was also embarrassed when Neo showed that he had paid himself a 16,000 lat (£20,000) bonus last year as city workers were enduring pay cuts. The executive, Aris Zigurs, admitted to Latvian media that the figure was accurate.
read more @ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7041727.ece
An unknown group of hackers said Wednesday they had illegally downloaded millions of Latvian tax documents
“This is a very serious situation,” Prime Minister Dombrovskis told Latvian Public Radio.
Documents, including VAT receipts and income tax declarations, showed that reforms launched to deal with Latvia’s severe economic crisis have not been working. - Neo
“We could show figures that structural reforms have been a bluff,” Neo said.
“Neo” said he represents the unknown Fourth Awakening People’s Army.
Classified tax documents from government computers and begun leaking information - including the pay details of managers at a bailed out bank - to a TV station.
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