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The headline is quoting a foreign investor and entrepreneur after €37,000 were stolen from his company by an executive. Though the theft is evidenced by video materials and falsification of company accounts, this was not reason enough for police to investigate. At least not until Postimees took a journalistic interest.
«This is depressing and unjust. A shameful decision,» says jurist Juhani Tamminen. He is baffled. Two weeks ago, he received a letter, strikingly straightforward and honest, from Central Criminal Police economic crimes department head Indrek Kulla, saying the criminal case initiated by Mr Tamminen is not a priority due to size of damage and lack of public interest. Therefore, it would be shelved to wait its turn (read: expiry date).
Too many numbers
The attitude would come as no surprise if not for the glaring laziness and approval of injustice. Namely, the alleged embezzlement was evidenced in detail even before having recourse to police. They even presented videotapes.
The more so – no trifle in this case – the victim is a foreign investor, a Finnish company selling industrial products. «It is very difficult for the owners to understand such an attitude by Estonian police,» says Mr Tamminen who has lived in Estonia for years.
«What signal, do you think, will this send to Finnish entrepreneurs regarding investing into Estonia?» Sounds like a threat, but he may be right.
And yet, the beginning of the investigation was positive, last June. Mr Tamminen recalls how, upon receiving the detailed evidence along with the declaration of the crime, the investigators admitted to never have received such detailed evidence.
Six months later, however, the file was still collecting dust on the shelf. The police hadn’t even summonsed the alleged criminal for questioning. «The investigator said there was too much numbers in these materials that would need to be investigated, and they have no time for such large-scale job,» says the jurist.
On the face of it, the case is a simple theft. Last summer, the company with millions in turnover unexpectedly discovered that a board member (male, aged 48) had during a couple of years quietly pocketed production worth €37,000.
For the board member, the thieving was easy as he was responsible for storage of the production and management of the warehouse. Therefore, it was easy for him to show larger quantities on electronic sales invoices afterwards, or just to write goods off.
Thereafter, all he had to do was to put the stuff in his car and drive off the territory. That’s all. As they begun to investigate, owners even managed to discover an incident like this from security recordings. Turned out, the man showed invoiced bigger by €21,584; the goods written off were for €14,484. Put together: €36,968 of damage.
The man was fired that very day. Impudently, he dropped by before evening to alter sales invoice data in the company’s electronically accounting.
In July, the Finns filed the crime at Northern Prefecture. They added the alleged thief’s job description, detailed sales invoices, a summary on how these were altered, the write-offs of goods, and video recording of the stealing of the paints.
According to Mr Tamminen, the economic crimes department head told him that, based on the evidence, the picture was totally clear. However… «His message was: please try and reach an agreement now, between yourselves, somehow,» says Mr Tamminen.
Considering the attitude to the former employee, this was unrealistic. Therefore, till the beginning of March the Finns kept hoping that Estonian law enforcement authorities would still help them. «And only now, then, we reached a solution like this,» says Mr Tamminen.
The police aren’t trying to deny that, due to the lack of state budget money, things aren’t rosy regarding investigating economic crimes. A lot is expected from the investigators, while forgetting that the police have had their staff cut by a thousand. Let’s recall what Police and Border Guard Board director-general Elmar Vaher said over ETV, in the fall: «I’ve run out of instruments.»
In his comment to Postimees a week ago, Central Criminal Police chief Indrek Tibar went as far as to suggest a solution altogether remarkable: the police’s investigative resources being limited, from now on entrepreneurs might rather think about claiming crime damages at civil court. Because Central Criminal Police would focus more on systemic economic crimes with large damages.
Police changes mind
«Investigators of economic crimes must continually decide which proceedings will be priority and which, after verifying the initial facts, will be waiting for recourses as these become available,» substantiated Mr Tibar.
«Is this continual setting of priorities and making hard choices a situation that inhabitants of Estonia ought to be reconciled with? I think not.»
A week went by and police cardinally altered its stand. At least the investigation of this matter. Just before the article went into print, Police and Border Guard Board chief Elmar Vaher announced that the crime herewith described will not remain on the shelf, not investigated.
«By today, the file of said criminal proceedings is already on the table of Northern Prefecture’s investigators who will continue the investigation begun at Central Criminal Police and the next procedural acts will be performed in near future,» vowed Mr Vaher.
Police explanation for not investigating
Carrying out criminal proceedings, especially with criminal cases regarding economy, is not easy. As state budget institution, Police and Border Guard Board receives its financial means out of state budget and, using these, can carry out its duties. Definitely, these means are not sufficient to ensure effective activity in all areas and operations, and therefore in our operations we need to set priorities, take hard or unpleasant decisions. Thus, in the department, we have set priorities for proceedings as prescribed by nature of the act, the size of the damage, as well as public interest. Such model of behaviour guarantees effective solution of acts with criminal characteristics in prioritised domain. The criminal case 14230108761 does not correspond to these conditions and is therefore in line to be proceeded i.e. should proceeding resources emerge (first and foremost, investigators) to perform the proceeding, it will undergo active proceeding. Although the criminal case includes the description of the deed to be punished, it is expedient for You as the victim to solve the proprietary dispute by way of civil proceedings which will ensure the payment of the material damage.
Respectfully
Indrek Kulla,
Proceedings department of economic crimes bureau
COMMENT
Elmar Vaher
Police and Border Guard Board, director-general
This crime will not go without investigation. We have made a mistake excessively burdening the investigators who need to focus on such economic crimes as directly endanger the business environment of all Estonia. To amend the situation, we will redistribute part of the investigations between our units.
By today, the file of said criminal proceedings is already on the table of Northern Prefecture’s investigators who will continue the investigation begun at Central Criminal Police and the next procedural acts will be performed in near future.
As I have said before, it is indeed impossible for the police to investigate all crimes with equal care and we have made several proposals to improve the situation. I do hope that the solutions offered by us to simplify proceedings will not be gathering dust someplace but will be reviewed as soon and thoroughly as possible.
Even in the future, we will be focussing most on such economic crimes that cause inequality in economic environment, but we will be continually reviewing the organisation inwardly – how to better distribute the load between investigators.
Crime has become increasingly white-collar and, therefore, we have created at Central Criminal Police a special economic crimes unit to help ensure trustworthiness and honest operation of Estonian economic environment – so people would want to do business in Estonia. Likewise, we have special drug and corruption crimes investigation units which focus on crimes that, in a disguised manner yet directly endanger the foundations of our state.