Part of Baltic Workboats criminal case collapses
The Prosecutor's Office has closed one fraud case involving the shipbuilder due to lack of evidence, while a separate €1.7 million tax case is ongoing.
"The Central Criminal Police have spent a little over half a year investigating suspicions that the company, its executives and employees may have committed subsidy fraud. It has now been established that, in the case of one of the projects under investigation, there is no basis to continue criminal proceedings, as no fraud was identified. The investigation into a second suspected episode of subsidy fraud is still ongoing," Prosecutor Sigrid Nurm told Eesti Ekspress.
As part of the criminal case, police are examining whether the company's senior staff may have engaged in so-called OÜ-tamine — issuing invoices on behalf of companies they are affiliated with for services that were never actually rendered.
In addition, investigators gathered evidence to determine whether the company, its leaders and employees committed subsidy fraud when applying for project funding from the Enterprise and Innovation Foundation (EISA) in 2022. Eligibility for such support requires that the applying company not begin related project activities or make any commitments, orders or bids prior to submitting the application to the agency.
Prosecutors initially suspected that the company had already begun project-related activities before receiving the funding, but information gathered during the preliminary investigation disproved that claim. According to Nurm, Baltic Workboats obtained the subsidy legally.
Baltic Workboats has designed and built more than 250 vessels, purchased by Estonian border guard, police, customs, pilot and port services. The company recently announced that its Saaremaa-based shipyard is constructing a new vessel for the State Fleet.
--
Editor: Marcus Turovski
Source: Eesti Ekspress
