Corruption, Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Port, Transport

The Public Prosecutor's Office accused Anna Annikova, 44, and Kaido Tamberg, 55, of repeated facilitation of bribe-taking on a large scale and as members of a group, and of money laundering on a large scale.

Under the plea deal, Tamberg received a suspended sentence of four years in jail with four years of probation and Annikova a suspended sentence of two years and seven months in jail with as long a period of probation. From the punishments of both the accused the three days they spent in jail during pretrial investigation were deducted.

According to Public Prosecutor Laura Feldmanis, Annikova and Tamberg enabled the port company's former CEO, Ain Kaljurand, to accept a monthly bribe from the port's contractual partners via their companies, by enabling the use of the companies' bank accounts.

They also facilitated bribe-taking by arranging a loan contract for Kaljurand and committed money laundering on a large scale by enabling Kaljurand to conceal his illegal income using their companies and by moving the money as instructed by Kaljurand, the prosecution said.

The Public Prosecutor's Office is set to send the materials of the investigation relating to Port of Tallinn former managers Ain Kaljurand and Allan Kiil to court still within this month.

The Internal Security Service (ISS), which is responsible for high-level corruption investigations in Estonia, finished the investigation at he beginning of June and forwarded the investigation materials to the defense.

As things stand now, there are 13 suspects in the Port of Tallinn corruption investigation.

According to ERR, the accused, besides Allan Kiil and Ain Kaljurand, are Eno Saar, Tonis Pohla, Toivo Promm, Ullar Raad and Martin Paide. In addition, the suspects include two Estonian nationals and two nationals of a foreign country.

No Estonian businesses have been listed as suspects. However, two foreign companies have been declared suspect as legal entities.

Kiil and Kaljurand are suspected of money laundering on a large scale and bribe-taking on a large scale.

Also Martin Paide, former head of the service department of Port of Tallinn, is suspected of bribe-taking.

Individuals connected with businesses in the transport and logistics sector both from Estonia and abroad have been declared suspect in bribe-giving and mediation of a bribe.

According to the suspicion, Kiil, former member of the port company's board, accepted bribes amounting to millions of euros and Kaljurand, former chairman of the board, bribes amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros.

Kiil and Kaljurand were arrested on Aug. 26, 2015 and released from custody at the beginning of 2016.