Estonia intends to change its law so that assets found to come from crime can be confiscated even when no one is convicted, ERR News reports. The plan follows an approach agreed among European Union member states, under which a court would first have to establish that the assets are of criminal origin.
According to the report, this could apply when a suspect is seriously ill, avoids the proceedings, or when the statute of limitations on the offence has run out. ERR News recalls two Estonian cases that ended without a conviction: the proceedings against Edgar Savisaar, which the Supreme Court terminated because of his health, and the Port of Tallinn corruption trial, in which the alleged offences had become time-barred.
Andreas Kangur, who leads the criminal law division of the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, told ERR News that the authorities would have to prove where the assets came from, and that confiscation of this kind must not label anyone a criminal, even implicitly. He pointed to rulings of the European Court of Human Rights on the presumption of innocence.
Chief State Prosecutor Alar Lehesmets said that several countries, among them the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Sweden, have had such measures for a long time. "Estonia is by no means breaking new ground here."
According to ERR News, Estonia is running behind schedule, as member states agreed to adopt the rules by the end of November.
Source: ERR News, . The text above is our own summary; the words in quotation marks are the source's.
What this means for an Estonian entrepreneur
For an Estonian company, the change means that money of criminal origin could be taken back even when nobody is convicted, for example after a large fraud case. A business that checks and documents where the funds of its clients and partners come from is better placed to show that its own assets are clean, and a licensed company should keep its anti-money-laundering procedures current.
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