Prosecutors accuse lawyer of violating international sanctions

According to the indictment, he provided legal services to the Kremlin-affiliated Legal Protection Fund for russian Compatriots (hereinafter referred to as Pravfond), accepted money from Pravfond, and thereby provided Pravfond with access to financial and economic resources.

Lawyer Urmas Simon was the contractual defence counsel for the defendant in anti-Estonian activities from October 2023 to 20 December 2024. Tatyana Sokolova paid for the lawyer's legal services. According to evidence gathered by the security service, Tatyana Sokolova herself had no money and was not interested in providing legal services to the defendant, but in fact ordered legal services and paid for them through Pravfond, which is linked to the Kremlin and sanctioned. 

According to the indictment, the lawyer learned no later than the beginning of June last year that the money paid to him for defending the defendant could have come from the sanctioned Pravfond, and he had no right to accept this money, but continued to provide services and accept money. According to the indictment, U. Simon thereby provided Pravfond with access to financial resources and allowed Pravfond to illegally introduce frozen funds into the economic circulation of the European Union. In addition, according to the indictment, he provided Pravfond and persons associated with the fund with his economic resources by providing them with legal services.
 

Providing legal services to a person suspected or accused of committing a crime against the state is not prohibited, and the prosecutor's office does not bring charges against the lawyer for this. However, since 23 July 2023, according to a resolution of the Council of the European Union, the use of Pravfond funds in the European Union and the provision of economic resources to Pravfond has been prohibited.

According to State Prosecutor Vahur Verte, the European Union imposed sanctions on Pravfond because it was founded and is funded by the russian federation to achieve russia's foreign policy goals.

"Pravfond plays an important role in the implementation of russia's policy, and one of the main areas of the fund's activity is precisely the financing of legal services. According to the prosecutor's office, the evidence gathered indicates that the lawyer knowingly provided services to individuals associated with Pravfond for money from Pravfond. Therefore, it is important that the court be able to comprehensively assess the evidence and decide whether the lawyer's actions complied with established rules or whether he committed a crime," Verte said.
 

Criminal proceedings against another lawyer, Arina Liskmann-Getsu, were discontinued. A. Liskmann-Getsu was the contractual defence counsel for the defendant accused of anti-Estonian activities from 20 March 2023 to 3 October 2023. Based on the evidence gathered by the Security Service, it was not possible to conclusively prove that A. Liskmann-Getsu, when accepting the money, knew that Pravfond was included in the list of sanctioned persons, i.e. that accepting the money was a criminal offence. Therefore, the prosecutor's office had no grounds to bring charges against her.

Tatyana Sokolova was found guilty in April this year of mediating the transfer of money from Pravfond to lawyers.

The pre-trial proceedings were conducted under the supervision of the State Prosecutor's Office by the Security Service.

Source: Estonian Prosecutor's Office