Estonian prosecutors declare 2 Poles suspects in Port of Tallinn corruption probe

Photo: Liis Treimann

The Estonian Prosecutor General's Office has filed suspicions against two managers of a Polish shipbuilding company as part of the corruption investigation relating to the state owned company Port of Tallinn, spokespeople for the chief prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

«Two people in management positions with the Polish shipbuilding company have been declared suspects in bribe-giving on a large scale. At the end of October employees of a Polish law enforcement agency questioned the men as suspects at the request of the Estonian Prosecutor General's Office, an official of the Estonian Internal Security Service was present during the conduct of procedural acts,» Public Prosecutor Laura Feldmanis told BNS.

According to the suspicion, the men promised Port of Tallinn Board Member Allan Kiil more than a million euros as a bribe, a part of which had been forwarded by the time the public procedural acts were conducted. One of the men is suspected of money laundering, in addition to bribe-giving. According to the suspicion the bribe was given for concluding an agreement on building of ferries with the company TS Laevad, she said.

Suspicions have been filed against ten people in the criminal investigation relating to Port of Tallinn now. Of these people eight are citizens of Estonia, who are suspected of bribe-taking, bribe-giving, being an accessory to thereof, or money laundering.

The Polish shipbuilding company that is building two ferries for the Estonian port company, Remontowa Shipbuilding, declared at the end of August that they were in no way connected to the Port of Tallinn corruption scandal.

«We hereby announce that there is no connection between Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. and Allan Kiil's graft suspicion case,» the CEO of Remontowa Shipbuilding, Andrzej Wojtkiewicz, told BNS.

«Our shipyard won a competition against a number of well-known companies. The selection of Remontowa Shipbuilding happened as a result of high-quality offered vessels, experience in the construction of passenger ferries as well as good reputation of the shipyard among European and American owners,» Wojtkiewicz said.

In September, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau of Poland (Centralne Biuro Antykorupcyjne, CBA) said they have conducted procedures in relation to the investigation being carried out in Estonia to establish alleged corruptive activities by former Port of Tallinn board member Allan Kiil.

«The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau conducted certain activities on August 26 at the request of the prosecutor's office of the Gdansk region,» a spokesman for CBA, Jacek Dobrzynski, said in his response to a question from BNS about wheter the offices of the Polish shipbuilder Remontowa Shipyards have been searched.

Officers of the Internal Security Service (ISS) 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 on the Morning of Aug. 26 this year. The former board members are suspected of accepting bribes on a large scale over a period of several years.

Both remain in custody.

Three more people detained as suspects in bribe-giving and three others detained as suspected accessories to bribe-giving as part of the investigation were released before Aug. 28.