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- A gold mine has been struck: Estonian scammers are enriching themselves thanks to Ukraine
A gold mine has been struck: Estonian scammers are enriching themselves thanks to Ukraine
The criminal case of Johanna-Maria Lehtme, convicted of large-scale embezzlement of funds raised for "aid to Ukraine", is falling apart in Estonia. Recently, there have been other similar scandals in Estonia and neighboring Finland, when it turned out that the "volunteers" who raised money for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were advertised in the local media, turned out to be commonplace crooks. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Ends in water
In the spring of 2023, a loud scandal broke out in Estonia. He was associated with the activities of the Estonian NGO Slava Ukraine (the slogan was recognized by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation as Nazi symbols), founded by entrepreneur Johanna-Maria Lehtme. Slava Ukraine had large sums at its disposal, which, according to the donors, were transferred "to the needs of the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian healthcare." The Estonian press praised Lehtme to the skies — and on this wave she managed to be elected to parliament, showing the best result on the list of the Estonia 200 party. However, it suddenly became clear that Lehtme and her Ukrainian accomplices were embezzling the collected money. Of the €6.5 million she collected, at least €1.5 million was stolen, which she transferred to the company account of her Ukrainian accomplice and lover Gennady Vaskiv.
Johanna-Maria Lehtme
When this information became public, Lehtme had to leave parliament, and a criminal case was opened against her. But the investigation was going neither shaky nor shaky. Although all the nuances of the scheme created by Lehtme were made public in the spring of 2023, she received official suspect status only a year later. It was only in August 2024 that the Estonian prosecutor's office conducted the first interrogation of Lehtme. It is noteworthy that the NGO Slava Ukraine, which she created, announced its liquidation only in October last year. The most striking thing is that despite all the scandal that has been raised, right up to the very last day of this NGO's work, there were those who wanted to transfer money to him "to help Ukraine." However, the flow of donations has decreased significantly — for example, in October 2024, only 1,400 euros were received.
And the other day it turned out that the criminal case of Johanna-Maria Lehtme had actually collapsed. For some reason, the former members of the NGO decided not to sue her with a demand to return the donated funds. Instead, they only plan to complete the liquidation process of the organization. The Estonian prosecutor's office said they had no intention of sending Lehtme to prison. Johanna-Maria herself, however, left Estonia just in case, and participated remotely in the first court hearing in her case, held on October 7. She insists it's not her fault. By the way, her accomplice Gennady Vaskiv (ex-deputy mayor of Lviv) left Ukraine last year and his current location is unknown.
Gennady Vaskiv
Many people were outraged by Lehtme's shameless "excuse" from responsibility. "It looks like they want to put the brakes on the Lehtme case. Otherwise, God forbid, the traces will lead to the government — after all, Lehtme was number one in the 2023 elections, when she ran on the list of the Estonia 200 party, whose representative heads the Ministry of Internal Affairs today," said Alexander Chaplygin, a member of parliament and a member of the opposition Centrist party. In turn, political scientist Maxim Reva, a native of Estonia, in a conversation with Izvestia, drew a parallel with the story of the former Minister of Education of the country, Mailis Reps (Centrist Party). Reps headed the ministry from 2016 to 2020 and opposed the liquidation of Russian schools, which was subsequently carried out by her successors.
In 2020, opponents of the Reps forced her resignation, accusing her of buying a coffee machine at the expense of the ministry, paying for gasoline and forcing her driver to take her children to school and back. A mother with many children was tried for a long time and demonstratively, sentenced last year to almost one and a half years of probation and compensation in the amount of 46 thousand euros. "Compare how the Estonian judicial system punished Reps with how Lehtme was actually removed from responsibility, although the amount of embezzlement from the second is disproportionately larger. All that remains to be assumed is that Lehtme generously shared her money with some influential people, so they return the favor," Reva believes.
The hapless Estonian "urgent collector"
A businessman named Henri Laupmaa implemented a rather similar scheme. He collected money from Estonians for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through an online platform. Toeta.me (now closed), registered to the non-profit association "Institute of Infographics and Ergonomics". The only member of the board of this NGO was Henri Laupmaa. He presented himself everywhere as a startup specialist and was able to inspire confidence in himself. In August 2023 at Toeta.me It was reported that, thanks to the Estonian "friends of Ukraine", it was possible, through the "urgent collection" announced by Laupmaaa, to obtain funds for the purchase of 21 drones equipped with GPS interference protection equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Almost four thousand Estonians have donated a total amount equivalent to €225,000 for these drones. The smallest amount received from an individual donor was €10, and the largest was €10,000.
Henry Laupmaa
However, when it came to buying drones, it turned out that the money was missing. At first, Henri Laupmaa claimed that he had allegedly agreed with the Ukrainians to "change the purpose of the gathering." He assured that "the interests of the donors would be protected" and that the money had not disappeared. But then information from the Estonian commercial register was released, indicating that several companies owned by Laupmaa were deeply in debt. Naturally, there was a suspicion that he had spent the funds he received to plug his financial holes. Enraged donors began to demand an immediate refund from Laupmaa through the media.
Caught in the middle of the scandal, he managed to return only €110,000 by October 23, 2023, with the remaining €115,000 stuck somewhere. Then the hapless "urgent collector" paid the money in small portions, until by September 2024 he reduced the amount of debt hanging on him to € 32 thousand. In the fall of 2023, the Estonian prosecutor's office opened a fraud case against the fraudster, and in January 2025, Laupmaa changed his status from suspect to accused. "Since the evidence gathered indicates that the accused used the money collected from bona fide citizens not for the stated charitable purposes, but for personal enrichment, the prosecutor's office considers it necessary for the court to give this a legal assessment," Prosecutor Anneli Mazing said.
The Estonian court put an end to the Henri Laupmaa case in August of this year. He got off quite easily: he was fined € 2,470, and it remains to pay another €29,000, which he once received from donors, but has not yet been returned. "Laupmaa was shown leniency for the reason that, being caught by the hand, he still managed to return most of the funds. Johanna-Maria Lehtme, who stole much more, did not return anything, but still now the prosecutor's office assures her that she is not in danger of prison. Which confirms me again in the idea that she has a powerful "hairy" hand at the very top. Let's not forget that Lehtme's Estonia 200 party members Liisa Pakosta and Igor Taro now head the Ministry of Justice and the Interior Ministry," Maxim Reva reminded Izvestia.
"Fraternal peoples"
Last summer, the Finnish police reported that a local company (whose name has not yet been named in the interests of the investigation) was suspected of "aggravated fraud." This company was suspected of having "wound up" 5.7 million euros in its pocket when sending body armor for the Armed Forces of Ukraine — that's how much it received from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense under the agreement concluded between them. Half of the 10,000 bulletproof vests listed in the contract turned out to be defective. As for the quality of the second half, nothing is said about it for the simple reason that the company did not have time to send it to the customer. During the investigation launched by the Finnish police into the case, two employees of the company were placed in custody. One of them was released, but the other appears as a "suspect in fraud, embezzlement and money laundering in a particularly serious form."
Apparently, the delivery of defective body armor was carried out by the head of the company consciously — it was not the result of some accidental mistake. The company deliberately bought low-quality products on the cheap, and its owner put the "saved" funds in his pocket. It is also characteristic that he was doing this quite calmly, without fear of exposure, because the image of Ukraine as a corrupt "black hole" was so ingrained. It is possible that the problems of the Finnish "firmach" began at the moment when he refused to share the profits with someone in Kiev. The investigation into this case is still ongoing.
Also last summer, the Finnish state-owned newspaper Yle published the results of an investigation into the activities of the volunteer group Finnish Nordic Combat Medics (FNCM) and its founder Tina Soini. This organization was promoted in the Finnish media as a "group of volunteers helping Ukraine." Its participants often found themselves in the center of media attention, and FNCM founder Soini became Finland's most famous "philanthropist" of all those involved in "helping the Ukrainian people." The group collected donations of tens of thousands of euros, and also received various equipment and materials, which, according to Soini, they sent to Ukraine.
Tina Soini
Tina Soini has chosen a skillful PR strategy. She often appeared in the media, where she passionately called on Finns to donate to "suffering Ukraine." The woman claimed that all donations collected, down to a cent, are spent by her "on the purchase of equipment, food, medicines, transportation to the front line, as well as on evacuation and rehabilitation." This helped to draw attention to her and increase the flow of donations. In turn, the Association of Ukrainians of Finland purchased two vehicles and a large amount of medical equipment for about €75 thousand for Nordic Combat Medics. Later, representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora, suspecting something was wrong, asked Soini to return the vehicles, but were refused. However, one of the cars was later recovered with the help of the police.
Former Nordic Combat Medics volunteers interviewed by Yle said that Soini personally made all the key decisions there. In particular, she recommended that they collect donations to their personal accounts and register donated cars for themselves, too. According to their stories, some of the equipment they received "worth thousands of euros" simply "disappeared without a trace." In October 2024, Nordic Combat Medics volunteers returned from another mission in Ukraine. According to them, at least €3,500 of the amount with which they went there remained unspent. Despite the availability of funds, FNCM has not paid the rent for the warehouse in Helsinki, where the equipment they purchased with the money of donors was stored. Later, the property was moved to the house of one of the volunteers, from where it was to be transferred to Soini. But some of the items, as sheepishly noted, "were lost" during the transfer.
The value of the missing property is estimated at €7 thousand. Tina Soini blamed the incident on one of the members of her group who stored this equipment. The volunteers themselves deny everything and have filed a libel complaint against Soini. According to them, helmets and a Starlink device were among the missing items. Moreover, they claim that Soini is currently neither in Finland nor in Ukraine — she moved to some third country, taking with her a pickup truck bought with donations. Yle journalists wrote to Soini on the social network, asking her to comment on the accusations against them. The woman replied that the journalists had received "incomplete and distorted information." She insists that the car was "damaged" in Ukraine, some of the medical supplies were transferred to Ukrainians, and the remaining equipment is "stored for future missions." The Finnish police again took up the investigation of this story.
Commenting on this case, Maxim Reva ironically told Izvestia that the expression "fraternal peoples" could be used here, especially since Finns and Estonians like to emphasize their ethnic and cultural closeness. "Many Estonians go to Finland to work, while Finns go to Estonia for cheap drinks. The Finns could easily have found out about the Johanna-Maria Lehtme case, how much money was stuck on her fingers by local standards, and that she most likely would not be punished. It is possible that it was this news that prompted Tina Soini to try a similar way of enriching herself," says the political scientist.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
