Lausing: Sepp and Parbus jailed for Savisaar’s sake

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu / Postimees

Party job for recent revelator Tarmo Lausing included meeting businessmen, together with Centre Party chairman Edgar Savisaar. Asking for money.

Tarmo Lausing, head of Jüri Vilms foundation as vice chair of Tallinn City Council in 2007, has fresh revelations to offer. In addition to him having to find donators for 350,000 kroons gotten from Kadri Simson, his hardest job was keeping the foundation afloat. Which meant: money was always short – the lack calculated not in tens of thousands, but in hundreds of thousands of kroons, even millions.

A glance at Jüri Vilms Foundation annual report of 2007 reveals income of 12.8 million kroons (3.2 million kroons in 2006). Even so, by year’s end, principal activity was in the red by 5.6 million kroons. «Lion’s share of income came from businessmen. Close to 13 million kroons, almost a million euros; that’s a lot of money,» acknowledges Mr Lausing, in hindsight. Adding that he would prefer not to talk of Jüri Vilms Foundation, rather naming it Vesti Dnja – the main activity of the foundation being publishing the very newspaper, in Russian.

«I am ashamed that the name of Jüri Vilms is mired due to the whole thing. Mr Vilms is an historical person, not supposed to feature in the said machinations. It was all about Savisaar and the paper was called Vesti Dnja,» says Mr Lausing, proceeding to reveal how he was forced, in order to keep the foundation’s book balanced, peculate Centre party «rainy day» money into it.

We know that Jüri Vilms Foundation was a means for businessmen to prove their allegiance to Centre Party and Edgar Savisaar, constantly transferring sums of 500,000 kroons or more, as requested.  What did the businessmen receive, in return?

It was not proving allegiance, as much as the dire need for money. That being the time when the market was running out of money. Centre Party is funded from state budget, it managed to make end meet; Vesti Dnja, however, was drowning. What I want to say is: getting money from «sponsors» was not easy, then, any more. It was only possible by Edgar dealing with it, personally. Otherwise they would have given nothing, the talk would have been very brief.

True, all businessmen have their desires, giving away money like this. And, should there be no wishes, at the moment, the money is given in advance, so to say. That, afterwards «I could call you directly and you are called back», as a big businessman has said – to the point. It seems to me the mightiest businessmen in Estonia just periodically give money to parties and they are always «serviced outside the waiting list», whatever they need, whenever they call. 

You also transferred a whopping 400,000 kroons to the foundation. Whence the money?

There was a certain time when nothing was coming from businessmen; from sales of Vesti Dnja, nothing came anyway; from advertisements sales, very little was collected. The whole time of me working there, I was on Edgar’s back, as we were in constant need of money. To (print shop – edit) Kroonpress and Eesti Post, we were always indebted by about 200,000 kroons. The axe was always over our heads: if you don’t pay up the debt at once, we will close down the printing machines, or stop distribution.

It was my job to avoid bankruptcy, to arrive at zero within half a year. As a rule, Edgar never listened to me before the Judgement Day i.e. should we have no money tomorrow, the paper will not go to print. This was repeated, over and over again. I was always on his back, and then at 12^th hour, he started to kick into gear, once in every two months he tackled the issue. Then it was that we met various businessmen.

But: whence came the 400,000 kroons that you took to the bank?

We were down to the bottom dollar, nothing was in pipeline from businessmen. It seemed to be over. Edgar told Kadri to give the money from the party’s rainy day purse. And, at the moment, 400,000 kroons were badly needed. We were constantly putting out fires. We never arrived at zero, it was always extreme urgency!

I headed to Centre Party headquarters; I remember the emotions as Kadri was not willing at all to hand me the money; even so, she was under orders. Basically, with trembling hands she opened the bag; this indeed was a black plastic trash bag, containing a total of 500,000 kroons of money laid aside for rainy days – money one just doesn’t touch, that easy. That was for the seriously extreme cases.

Where was the money, at the office? In a corner somewhere? In a safe?

It was at the Centre Party bureau, at Toom-Rüütli Street, in a room with Edgar Savisaar’s name on the door, where Kadri worked as secretary general. Probably, it was in a safe or some repository. As I stepped in, the bag was on the table. Kadri opened the bag and counted the 400,000. It was eight packs of 500 kroon notes.

And she urged me earnestly to bring it back: this was party money, not Vesti Dnja money. As soon as money comes in – and deals were in the atmosphere, talks with businessmen underway – you bring it back.

Yes, I promised. And back then I really did believe I’d bring it back. But I never brought it back, as I never had money to spare.

The money was «gone by night», true?

Yes. 100,000 for the print shop, 100,000 for distribution,  200,000 for salaries. And gone it was.

Then, you headed to the bank, with the packs of money ...

...yes, to Lasnamäe Swedbank branch, No l Pae  Street ...

... just stacked the packs on the counter ...

... that’s the way it’s done. As company board member, you can do that. Standard procedure.

Standard procedure?

In addition to the 400,000, a little later there was yet another cash flow of 150,000 kroons. In that sense, it was nothing out of the ordinary: you just take the money to the bank, you want to get rid of it fast. You don’t go to Statoil, while on your way, to get yourself a hot dog and a cup of coffee; you do not take it home or leave it in the car. You want to get rid of it at once, get it in a safe place.

For me, it was not the size of the sum that was the problem; rather, it was us working in the red, constantly. That’s what gets you unglued, very much so.

You felt bad, back then?

I felt terrible. Often I was stressed out, thinking about that all the while and slept bad. It took its toll on the family – I was nervous, above average. The usual day went like this: I’m home after a long tiresome day, eating supper with my wife; then, the telephone rings and I have a lengthy conversation with a colleague about money matters at Vesti Dnja, and how to get some quick. These were nervous times. 

You act, understanding it isn’t right ...

I took a very pragmatic approach: I needed to take the establishment to zero. No way did it happen, but I really tried. The money just burnt up.

Why, then, did Edgar Savisaar need the newspaper after all?

His hopes were on the Russians. He hoped to keep them on the leash, that way. For some time, it was a vital channel for the Russians and it did have real readers at a certain point in time; even so, basically, it was a dying newspaper. The people close to Edgar who were against purchasing that newspaper were right, actually. Wasting two million on the purchase, and then the rest of the millions burned up! Far what?

Let’s go over the scheme: businessmen bought advertisements in the paper, as if, paying 500,000 for instance; but the ads never appeared? Just concealed support for Centre Party politics?

There were three kinds of money inflow: firstly one could make a donation. A larger part of the comrades preferred to buy ads; some comrades like Vjatšeslav Leedo loaned us money, so to say.

Leedo gave two million kroons and it was never paid back; later, it was just deleted by a bookkeeping trick. Leedo’s bookkeepers somehow entered it into next year’s annual report as a loan unlikely to be paid. Then, for the year after that, it was already entered as a loan with zero likelihood to be paid. Two millions like that were for the starters. As soon as I came, I was deep in the red; immediately, a heap of money was needed, and Leedo at once did a big injection.

Where did Edgar Savisaar prefer to meet the businessmen?

Edgar preferred to meet them in the Scottish Club; there, we had numerous meetings in a row. There, for instance, we met Alexela chief Heiti Hääl. Hääl did give money, ordered Alexela ads. Meanwhile, we also went to offices, centre bureau, and other restaurants.

Talk over, did the businessmen lay money on the table?

No, the businessmen transferred the money, that was all official. Nobody dealt with cash, that came from party HQ.

And the businessmen did transfers?

The businessmen did transfers. That was because it was not to support the party, it didn’t go unto party account. But to just donate to Vesti Dnja felt suspicious; so they formalised it otherwise.

So you transfer 500,000, but ads are never published in that volume?

Exactly.

Large sums came from Tallinn Pharmaceutical Plant (Tallinna Farmaatsiatehas). Please describe how the meetings took place,  who were there and what kinds of sums were moved?

The Tallinna Farmaatsiatehas (TFT) story is infamous, as, for this – among other things – Elmar Sepp, Ivo Parbus and Raivo Unt went to jail. Vilms Foundation, as a legal person, was also convicted. In brief: businessmen desired to build a high-rise at Tondi Street, Vesti Dnja got 500,000 kroons and, a little while later, the city initiated the desired detailed plan. Earlier, city government had refused this very detailed plan. I clearly remember how it all started.

How, then?

We were at Edgar’s place; in addition to me, there was Lauri Laasi and some others. Brainstorm-style, we compiled a list of businessmen who we might ask for money. The list already included names like Oleg Ossinovski, Viktor Levada, Fjodor Berman. Lauri, always the bold one, came out with some Latvians of his who had lots of money – TFT owned by Latvians, from Riga – and who had some interests over there, in Tondi. He said they were so rich that of them we might get 500,000 not once, but many times over.

After ten minutes of discussions, Edgar, having considered the deal, told Lauri: «You know, see about that Latvian thing, maybe there’s something here.» And so it went. Some weeks later, I already had a meeting with TFT director Raivo Unt, who informed me that the owners are interested in supporting Vesti Dnja by 500,000 kroons. What a relief to me, such frankness! He said he had been tasked with formalising it in a dignified way. «And about the future, if and how, we’ll see. Additional support is not excluded,» Unt told me.

After that, we discussed what kinds of ads the paper could run regarding TFT etc. Briefly, we also discussed TFT interests – that they are planning to build a high-rise close there at Tondi, and then to move the plant over to Lasnamäe.

Further on, it was Laasi who dealt with the Latvians and at a certain point in time, the detailed plan was initiated. Clearly, as Mayor, Edgar personally saw to it, as very recently the city government had said no. At that moment, only Mayor could have forced it through. Afterwards, more money came from TFT – how much, I do not know.

Am I getting it right: Mr Savisaar needed money, Latvians needed city government permission to build a high-rise. Mayor Savisaar fixed the deal, but later it was other people who went to jail for it?

Yes, Elmar Sepp and Ivo Parbus went to jail in place of Edgar Savisaar. One for instigating a crime, the other as committer of the crime. And, from TFT, Raivo Unt went behind bars. For giving and receiving bribe. Even so, that time, the bribe did not go into pockets of Sepp and Parbus, rather to support Vesti Dnja.

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Centre Party on the defensive

Former Centre Party secretary general Kadri Simson resolutely denied giving money to Mr Lausing: «The sums keep getting larger! Tarmo Lausing and Mart Viisitamm seem to be planning to paint a picture of Centre Party secretary general’s office as a room filled, up to the ceiling, with black money. I have said it before and I am saying it again: no sums of unknown origin have moved through me.»

The party’s press secretary Taavi Pukk was brief: «Lausing is trying to do a campaign where police and courts have already been. Good luck!»

Also, Postimees attempted to get a comment from big businessman Vjatšeslav Leedo, who, according to Mr Lausing, gave Vesti Dnja two million kroons. Mr Leedo remained unreachable.