Seven individuals charged in relation with the ERIAL case

The number of charges as well as suspects related to the case of the savings and loan co-operative ERIAL increased on Sunday. Photo: Tairo Lutter

The number of charges as well as suspects related to the case of the savings and loan co-operative ERIAL increased on Sunday, May 16.

The State Prosecutor’s Office charged the day before yesterday seven individuals and two enterprises related to the criminal case investigating the suspicions about the founder and managers of the savings and loan co-operative ERIAL of investment fraud and embezzlement. Further charges were brought concerning the giving and taking of bribes.

According to the charge, the founder of savings and loan co-operative ERIAL Ilya Dyagelev and a member of the management board Daniela Dalberg-Dyageleva, as well as OÜ Dalkona owned by the latter, committed investment fraud and submitted false information about the activities of ERIAL. The fraud created a misleading impression among depositors and the general public about the actual financial state of the company. Another purpose of the fraud was to attract new deposits and grant large loans.

Dyagelev, Dalberg-Dyageleva, Daniel Nevsky and Transpire OÜ managed by the latter are further charged with having embezzled approximately one million euros from the savings and loan co-operative with the assistance of the lawyer Sofja Pevzner-Belošitski by artificial price distortions of real estate transactions.

Dalberg-Dyageleva is further charged with having submitted false information to shareholders of the savings and loan co-operative ERIAL and the auditor; members of the company’s loans commission Kristiina and Robert, whose names have not yet been mentioned in connection with the case, are charged with forgery of a document, and Pevzner-Belošitski with being accessory to the forgery and using the forged document.

Dyagelev was further charged with giving bribe and a former police officer Dmitri with accepting a large bribe.

The savings and loan co-operative ERIAL attracted attention last year by offering up to 12 percent interest on deposits. The Central Criminal Police arrested Dyagelev, Dalberg-Dyageleva and Nevsky in November; Dyagelev has been in detention since December.

The co-operative has more than 1,700 members. As of February the co-operative has obligations worth 16 million euros which are planned to be met by selling mortgaged property and from recovering granted loans and interests.

According to State Prosecutor Sigrid Nurm, the Prosecutor’s Office has reached the conclusion, based on gathered evidence, that the ERIAL management board member and the founder have not acted in the best interests of the depositors or the co-operative ERIAL.

Giving and accepting bribes can be punished with a prison sentence from one to ten years. Investment fraud and embezzlement can bring a five-year sentence, submitting false information about the financial state of a business enterprise and the forgery of documents is punished with a prison sentence up to one year, while the use of a forged document may be punished with a three-year sentence.