Baltic States – CIS, Banks, Estonia, Financial Services, Investments, Legislation

Indrek Leppik, the attorney representing the entrepreneurs with their claim, stated that the lawsuit involves approximately 50 million kroons and entrepreneurs have been trying to get their money that had been left in the Soviet Union Foreign Economy Bank (VEB) for more than 15 years.

Thus far, the courts had ruled that the government and the Bank of Estonia were in the right. Judges Silvia Truman, Lauri Madise and Virgo Saarmets write in a court decision made public on February 2 that VEB fund certificates must be compensated by the government.

“The instrument of the compensation – state bonds, money or some other just compensation, and the size of the compensation is the considered decision of the contender and the court cannot prescribe its contents,” said the judges.

Should the decision to pay to the five companies come in force, new claims of companies would follow where they would demand besides the main sum also punitive interests for the nearly 20 years of deposit time.

A few months after Estonia regained independence, the Russian parliament froze the accounts of two Estonian banks in the Vneshekonombank (VEB). Around 800 million kroons worth of dollars, pounds, francs and other currencies that Estonian companies had earned with export was frozen there.

A tear after the money was frozen, the Riigikogu formed a VEB fund by Bank of Estonia that gathered the claims together. So far, companies haven’t received their money or compensations from the fund.