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Estonia: Donation platform suspected of embezzling funds raised for Ukraine

The Estonian police suspect the non-profit organization Infograafika ja Ergonoomika Instituut and its sole management board member Henri Laupmaa of embezzling funds collected for Ukraine through the non-profit’s donation platform Toeta.me, the Russian-language online edition of Postimees reports.

Anneli Masing, a prosecutor of the Northern District Prosecutor’s Office, said that information about the misappropriation of money collected for charitable purposes via the Toeta.me platform was received by the Police and Border Guard Board and the prosecutor’s office, and criminal proceedings were initiated in mid-September to verify this information.

A suspicion of extensive embezzlement of assets has now been brought against the head of Toeta.me, Henri Laupmaa, the prosecutor noted.

Masing emphasized that these are preliminary suspicions, which may change during the investigation. Therefore, the prosecutor’s office cannot currently specify the amount of damage caused or any other circumstances.

According to the information available to public broadcaster ERR, the organizers of a campaign for buying drones for Ukraine have not received the money collected via the platform. After the end of the campaign, the organizers tried to retrieve more than 220,000 euros donated by nearly 4,000 people from Laupmaa, the leader of the donation platform and owner of Fundwise, but in vain.

“A procedure emerging during negotiations is the result of confusion rather than being justified,” Laupmaa told ERR, commenting on the suspicion.

Laupmaa claimed that he agreed with the initiators of the drone campaign to change the use for the raised funds.

“We have now reached an agreement and signed it,” he said.

Source: BNS

(Reproduction of BNS information in mass media and other websites without written consent of BNS is prohibited.)

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