The charity was founded shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and raised over €6 million. A criminal case was opened into Lehtme in May 2023. The two-year investigation has been carried out by Estonia's Central Criminal Police and their Ukrainian counterparts.

Based on the gathered evidence, an indictment was prepared and submitted on Tuesday to the Harju District Court. 

"The indictment accuses Johanna-Maria Lehtme, one of the founders and former head of the NGO Slava Ukraini, of breaching the trust of the organization and embezzling donation funds on a large scale," said state prosecutor Sigrid Nurm, who led the pretrial investigation.

Until August 2022, Slava Ukraini had provided humanitarian aid exclusively through the Ukrainian NGO All For Victory. However, according to the indictment, in August Lehtme abused her leadership position and initiated a loss-making collaboration with the Ukrainian company IC Construction on behalf of Slava Ukraini.

"The only difference between the two organizations was that All For Victory could not issue invoices or add markups for its services, while IC Construction did," the state prosecutor noted.

Nurm said that by signing loss-making contracts with the Ukrainian company and paying invoices based on them, Lehtme misused the NGO's entrusted funds and caused Slava Ukraini over €413,000 in unjustified expenses.

This conclusion was reached by comparing Ukrainian purchase prices with the prices listed on invoices submitted by IC Construction.

The embezzlement charge is connected to a logistics contract signed in August 2022, under which Slava Ukraini paid All For Victory approximately €44,500. The money was supposed to cover the transport of humanitarian aid from Estonia to Ukraine.

"During the investigation, it was revealed that payment had also been made to the Ukrainian NGO All For Victory for the same service. Additionally, evidence shows that the Ukrainian company never actually provided any logistics services; instead, the payment under the contract was used to cover All For Victory's operational expenses and salaries. Therefore, by approving the payment, Johanna-Maria Lehtme diverted €44,500 to benefit the Ukrainian company and All For Victory, thereby committing embezzlement of assets belonging to Slava Ukraini," Nurm said.

According to the prosecutor's assessment, the agreements concluded with the Ukrainian company and the invoices paid under them caused over €450,000 in damage to the Estonian NGO. This damage, in the prosecutor's view, would not have occurred if Lehtme had fulfilled the duty of care associated with her entrusted leadership position, which obliges an NGO head not to knowingly harm the organization's financial standing.

The investigation also confirmed that despite the potentially loss-making agreements, the aid projects presented to the public were carried out. Humanitarian assistance was provided with the €6.5 million donated by Estonian residents, reaching those in need.

Lehtme's representative, Dmitri Teplõhh, declined to comment on the charges brought against Lehtme on Tuesday.

Who is Johanna-Maria Lehtme?

Johanna-Maria Lehtme co-founded Slava Ukraini following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The NGO raised millions of euros for Ukraine, and she was awarded the European of the Year award by the president in 2022.

Lehtme became so well known that she even stood for parliament in the 2023 election with the Eesti 200 party, winning a seat. She stood down after the allegations first came to light.

Newspaper Eesti Ekspress also found that Lehtme had been accused of embezzlement in a previous job.

The charity wound up its operations in October 2024 after the public stopped donating to the organization.

This article was updated to add information from Dmitri Teplõhh.

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