Estonian prosecution suspecting Kiil of accepting millions of euros in bribes

Photo: Toomas Huik / Postimees

Former member of the board of the Estonian state-owned Port of Tallinn, Allan Kiil, is being suspected of accepting bribes worth millions of euros while former chairman of the board Ain Kaljurand is suspected of accepting hundreds of thousands of euros in bribes, public prosecutor Laura Feldmanis said on Friday at a press conference.

According to Feldmanis, the criminal investigation in connection with the actions of Kiil and Kaljurand was launched this year but collected evidence suggests that possible corruptive transactions extend as far back as 2009. The central transaction in the corruption case is the ferry tender and the investigators are questioning the decision to order the passenger ferries from Poland but not the decision to order these from Turkey, Feldmanis said.

Only Kiili is at present being suspected of accepting bribes in connection with the ferry tender and these bribes can amount to millions of euros, Feldmanis said. She confirmed that some of the money actually reached Kiil. According to the prosecutor Kaljurand was not bribed in connection with the ferry tender, but accepted bribes in connection with several other episodes and with Kiil. According to Feldmanis Kaljurand is suspected of accepting hundreds of thousands of euros in bribes.

Feldmanis said that Esteve Terminal and HTG Terminal are being suspected of being bribers, but did not want to name any specific names at the moment. She did say that Kiil and Kaljurand are suspected of accepting bribes secretly and also used enterprises for that. For that reason the two men are being suspected of money laundering, but Feldmanis did not mention the number of criminal episodes.

The transactions for which the suspects were bribed were not necessarily unlawful, Feldmanis said.

According to Feldmanis it cannot be said at the moment whether the number of suspects could increase as the investigation progresses. She also did not want to say how much bribe money actually reached the suspects and whether their assets have been seized.

Officers of the Internal Security Service (ISS) on Wednesday morning detained the chairman of the management board of Port of Tallinn, Ain Kaljurand, and member of the board Allan Kiil as suspects in bribe-taking. The court on Friday decided to remand both men in custody.

The former board members are suspected of accepting bribes on a large scale over a period of several years.

Three more people have been detained as suspects in bribe-giving and three others as suspected accessories to bribe-giving as part of the investigation but they had been released by Friday noon.

The Estonian state-owned company Port of Tallinn has paid constructors instalments worth a total of 57.8 million euros or nearly half of the sum for the construction of four brand new ferries to operate subsidized routes to Estonia's large western islands and the next instalment is to be paid later in the fall with the help of a long-term loan.

The ferries will cost about 30 million euros each and will be ready by fall next year. The ferries are being built in shipyards located in Gdansk, Poland and Altinova/Yalova, Turkey.