Court convicts ex-minister Mailis Reps of embezzlement and fraud

Court convicts ex-minister Mailis Reps of embezzlement and fraud. Photo: Tairo Lutter

The Harju County Court has found Estonia's former minister of education Mailis Reps guilty of embezzlement and fraud, handing her a cumulative sentence of one year and five months of imprisonment.

The court decided to suspend the sentence, provided that Reps does not commit a new intentional offense during a two-year probation period, which begins from the announcement of the court's decision, which was made on Friday.

Reps was charged with embezzlement, committed in her capacity as a public official. According to the charges, Reps arranged for her personal expenses not related to the ministry's work to be covered using the ministry's funds. These included expenses for care for her children, transportation for herself and others, and the purchase and delivery of goods. Reps was aware that these activities were not related to the duties of the employees of the Ministry of Education and Research.

In addition, according to the indictment, Reps used the ministry's fuel card to buy fuel for personal use and had the ministry pay for catering services for her personal birthday party on the premises of the ministry.

Reps also arranged for the payment of her child's travel expenses, the purchase of a coffee machine, the payment of the bill for her birthday held in the restaurant Mon Repos, and expenses related to visiting WRC Rally Estonia from the ministry's funds.

The court found that the charges were mostly proved. The expenditure related to children caused the most debate. The court held that Reps, as a minister, did not have the right to cover personal expenses from the budget funds of the Ministry of Education and Research. At the trial, an attempt was made to give the court the impression that when the accused went on work trips with a toddler, this was also a promotion for the ministry, but in the court's opinion, it was a case of exploiting the benevolence of the ministry staff and incurring additional expenses for the ministry. That is, the accused resolved issues of her family life at the expense of the working time and leisure time of the ministry's employees and the funds of the ministry.

The defense argued that the driver and advisors' job duties involved caring for the minister's children, making the assignment of such tasks by Reps legal. However, the court found this interpretation to be contrived and arbitrary. While it is understandable that a minister's work is important for the Estonian state and that a minister's workdays are long and sometimes stressful, this does not mean, nor is it listed as a requirement anywhere, that the state should provide a minister with support staff to care for their children and family, or compensate them for this, or that this should be provided at the expense of the ministry's employees' working hours or personal time.

The court decided to terminate the criminal proceedings against Reps on the charge of embezzlement for using the fuel card, as the court considered it to be a misdemeanor.

Reps must pay the state 1,230 euros in procedural costs for her conviction of a second-degree criminal offense and part of the legal costs of the ministry in the amount of more than 3,877 euros.

The court partially upheld a civil action brought by the ministry and ordered Mailis Reps to pay 6,070 euros, plus default interest. The remainder of the civil action, amounting to over 112,749 euros, was ordered to be borne by the state. According to the court, it is not possible to establish the extent of the costs incurred over a period of three and a half years in the use of ministry staff for personal purposes, as such calculations can be made only on a hypothetical basis, In addition, the accused has already reimbursed the ministry for some of the costs.

There was no justification for claiming the costs related to the use of the ministry car because these costs were not covered by the indictment.

The decision of the Harju County Court has not yet entered into force.