Cooperation, Crime, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legal Counsel, Markets and Companies

According to investigators, a group of individuals from Estonia and Poland engaged in defrauding businesses of money in 2014-2015 under the disguise of a court of arbitration that never existed. A joint investigating group of Estonia and Poland has been established to conduct the proceedings more effectively, the Estonian Public Prosecutor's Office said.

As a result of the actions of the investigating group coordinated and simultaneous searches, arrests and interrogations of suspects were carried out in both countries last week. A court in Poland decided to place one Polish citizen and one Estonian citizen under arrest for three months as main suspects.

"This is a good example of effective international cooperation. Without excessive red tape and by rapidly sharing information we managed to collect evidence of large-scale fraud. Even though the size of actual damage was five mln euros, an attempt was made to defraud victims of several tens of mlns or euros," the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Piret Paukstys, said.

"While we haven't had this kind of cooperation with Poland earlier, the course of the proceeding is a matter for satisfaction," Janek Maasik, head of the unit for the investigation of economic crimes at the Central Criminal Police, added.