The organization, Pravfond, is aimed at providing legal defenses. However, the Guardian reported last year, Pravfond is in fact a Kremlin influence operation active in 48 countries across Europe and around the world.

According to the charge sheet against Simon, the lawyer provided legal services to the Kremlin-linked sanctioned Pravfond, accepted money from the same organization, and so rendered financial means and economic resources available to Pravfond.

Simon had been the contractual defender of an individual accused of anti-Estonian activities between October 2023 and December 20, 2024.

Simon was nominally paid by one Tatjana Sokolova, though according to evidence collected by the Internal Security Service (ISS) Sokolova herself did not provide the funds nor have any interest in providing legal services to the accused, and in fact the legal service was ordered and paid for by Pravfond.

The 65-year-old Sokolova was convicted this April for acting as the middleman in distributing Pravfond money to lawyers. In October 2024, border guards stopped the travel agent as she was attempting to carry €10,000 in cash into Estonia from Russia.

According to the indictment on Simon, he learned by no later than early June 2024 that the money paid for his defense of the individual he was representing might have originated from the sanctioned Pravfond, meaning he should not have accepted those funds. However, he continued providing services and accepting the payments.

The charges find Simon thereby made financial means available to Pravfond and enabled it illicitly to channel frozen Russian funds into the EU's economic circulation. In addition, according to the charges, by providing legal services to Pravfond and people associated with it, Simon made his own economic resources available to Pravfond.

Providing legal services to a suspect or accused individual in an anti-state crime is not prohibited in itself, so the Prosecutor's Office does not reproach Simon over this. However, since July 23, 2023, the use of Pravfond's money within the EU and the making of economic resources available to Pravfond has been prohibited by a regulation of the Council of the European Union.

According to Prosecutor General Vahur Verte, the EU had imposed sanctions against Pravfond because it was founded and is financed by the Russian Federation, with the aim of fulfilling Russia's foreign policy objectives.

"Pravfond plays an important supporting role in implementing Russia's policy of division, and one of the fund's main areas of activity is precisely the financing of legal services. In the Prosecutor's Office's assessment, the evidence collected shows that the lawyer knowingly provided services with Pravfond's money to people connected with Pravfond. Therefore it is important that the court can comprehensively assess the evidence and decide whether the lawyer's actions were in accordance with established rules or whether he committed a crime," Verte said.

Proceedings against Arina Liskmann-Getsu wrapped up due to lack of evidence

Criminal proceedings to investigate the activities of another lawyer, Arina Liskmann-Getsu, have been terminated. Liskmann-Getsu was the contractual defender of an individual accused of anti-Estonian activities between March 20, 2023 and October 3, 2023. Based on evidence collected by the ISS, it was not possible to prove irrefutably that Liskmann-Getsu knew at the time of accepting the funds that Pravfond had been added to the list of sanctioned persons, i.e. that accepting the money was punishable under criminal law. As a result, the Prosecutor's Office had no grounds to bring charges against Liskmann-Getsu.

The pre-trial proceedings were carried out by the ISS under the direction of the Prosecutor General's Office.

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