Center Party pays off €1 million fine
The Center Party has paid off its €1 million fine, imposed for influence peddling in the Porto Franco case, as of March, the party's secretary general Anneli Ott confirmed.
According to the Political Parties Financing Surveillance Committee's (ERJK) party financing report for the first quarter of 2026, the Center Party once again received a loan of €219,999 from LHV Pank.
According Anneli Ott, the Center Party's secretary general, this is the same loan the party has been receiving since the second quarter of 2025, intended to repay the €1 million fine imposed on the party in the Porto Franco case.
The total amount of the loan is €879,996, guaranteed by 12 members of the Center Party. The loan must be repaid by 2027.
Ott said that the final installment of the loan, €73,333, was received in March, allowing the Center Party to fully pay off the fine imposed on it.
In a ruling issued in February last year, the Supreme Court of Estonia upheld the decision of the Tallinn Circuit Court, under which the Center Party, its former secretary general Mihhail Korb and businessman Hillar Teder were found guilty of influence peddling.
The Porto Franco case was a high-profile corruption scandal centered on a massive real-estate development in Tallinn's harbor district. It is most famous for causing the collapse of the Estonian government in January 2021.
According to the charges, Teder promised up to €1 million in donations to the Center Party in exchange for political favors. Specifically, these favors included a €39 million state loan (via the KredEx foundation) and a favorable price for an access road (easement) on city-owned land in Tallinn.
Within hours of the investigation becoming public in January 2021, Prime Minister Jüri Ratas resigned, leading to the fall of the Center-EKRE-Isamaa coalition.
The Center Party was fined €750,000, which was increased by the unpaid portion of a previous penalty, bringing the total combined fine imposed on the party to €1 million.
In the first quarter of this year, the opposition Center Party's income was narrowly the highest among political parties, totaling €508,624 including the loan.
Of this, €186,725 came from state funding, €84,672 from donations and €16,651 from membership fees.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski. Märten Hallismaa
