Estonia is 27th least corrupt country

Estonia’s rating in the Transparency International corruption perception index published on Tuesday was unchanged. The list published on Tuesday is of 180 countries.
Estonia is 27th in the list, at exactly the same position where it was last year, and equal with Cyprus and Slovenia. The rating of the countries is also the same, 6.6 points.
According [...]

Ex-minister accused for bribery

Tallinn Circuit Court ruled today that ex-minister Villu Reiljan was guilty of asking a 1.5 million kroon bribe from businessman Aivo Pärn through his lawyer Tarmo Sild.
According to ERR, this means that the ruling of judge Märt Toming of Harju County Court on May 19 will stay. Under the judgement, Reiljan received a conditional sentence [...]

CIA secret ‘torture’ prison found in Lithuania

According to ABC News, the CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius in Lithuania.
This was reported by a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official. “The activities in that prison were illegal,” said human rights researcher John Sifton. “They included various forms of torture, including [...]

Big amounts of cash move to Russia

In 303 cases people have declared cash amounts of more than EUR 10,000 (more than EEK 156,461) to take out from Estonia, in total amount of EEK 2,73 bln, Estonian Tax and Customs Board (MTA) told Eesti Päevaleht.

The main destination is Russia. In most cases the amount had been below EUR 6 mln.
According to the [...]

Vodka producer used fake tax labels

The state prosecution and the Tax and Customs Board ascertained that more than half of arrested vodka bottles produced by Offex Group had fake tax labels.
“It has been ascertained in this criminal process that 37,193 or 59 pct of 62,644 bottles that were taken from different stores and OÜ Baltmodum warehouse, had fake tax labels,” [...]

Darkening Tallinn increases crime

Jüri Pihl, the Minister of Interior was critical for Tallinn city government’s decision to switch off the lights, when speaking in front of the Parliament yesterday, ERR News reports. 
“The risk of being a victim of the crime is certainly higher in the dark, unlighted streets and in depopulated areas. Local municipalities and companies have a [...]

US prisoners to migrate to Europe

Estonia has agreed to receive prisoners from the US Guantanamo Bay detention camp that is being closed down, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told reporters after the government’s meeting on Thursday, ITAR-TASS reports.
“These are not criminals charged with terrorism, but suspects who were not put on trial over the absence of evidence. Therefore after the prison’ [...]

Spy is imprisoned for 12 years

Today Harju County Court found former high state official Herman Simm guilty for treason and sentenced him to prison for 12.5 years, aripaev.ee writes.  Simm also has to pay EEK 20,155,000 for damages.
Source: BBN

Selver tried to hide a fraud

Äripäev possesses a correspond between Selver employees, from which it appears that Selver’s CEO IIvi Saar decided to hide fictitious employment contracts made by former shop manager.

They informed the Tax and Customs Board after Äripäev asked questions about the fraud that took place in the beginning of the year.
The manager of Punane Selver (in Lasnamäe – edit) [...]

Another bribe case discovered

Viru circuit prosecution sent a criminal matter to court, charging Agu Värimäe, head of Ida-Virumaa county environmental department, for demanding a bribe.
In January 2008 Värimäe demanded twice that a landowner should sell a piece of land, with an aim to join the land with his relative’s one.

In return the landowner would’ve gotten an accord to [...]