The Estonian Artists' Association recently fell victim to a large-scale financial fraud scheme, during which criminals transferred an estimated nearly €700,000 from the organization's current accounts over the course of a week.

Most of that sum consisted of targeted funding from the Ministry of Culture intended for the Artists' Association to pay artists' salaries this year and to provide support under the Creative Persons and Creative Unions Act.

As a result, the minister of culture initiated administrative supervision to verify the use of creative union support allocated in 2026 for the payment of creative grants and scholarships.

The administrative supervision and the use of the state budget operating grant will be assessed by the Ministry of Culture's head of internal audit Krista Nelson and Information Security Manager Triin Nigul.

Nelson wrote to the Artists' Association for an overview of the NGO's general operations, financial controls, information security measures and governing internal procedures, as well as their overall compliance with applicable legislation, including whether the protection of assets and personal data and the processing of personal data are being ensured in accordance with requirements.

The procedures are scheduled to be carried out in June 2026.

The Estonian Artists' Association lost €700,000 through a telephone scam. Last Wednesday, the Police and Border Guard Board announced that on May 25 it detained a 22-year-old Lithuanian citizen and a 21-year-old Estonian citizen in Maardu on suspicion of participating in the fraud scheme involving the Estonian Artists' Association.

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