Supreme Court upholds administrative confiscation of suspected laundering cash

Estonia’s Supreme Court has upheld the administrative confiscation of 7,400 euros linked to suspected money laundering without criminal proceedings, ERR reported, citing the Financial Intelligence Unit.

A Tallinn Circuit Court order that entered into force last week left unchanged an administrative court’s permission to transfer the money to state ownership. The sum consisted of 37 damaged 200-euro banknotes that an individual had brought to Eesti Pank, Estonia’s central bank, for exchange.

The court found that the cash remained linked to suspected money laundering and that the individual had provided contradictory and implausible explanations about its origin. It also found that the person was most likely acting as a front person and that the true beneficial owner of the money could not be identified.

“The money most likely originated from a bank robbery that, according to public sources, took place in Libya in 2017. As it is not possible to gather evidence in Estonia to conduct criminal proceedings in this case, and the other statutory conditions for administrative confiscation were also met, we were able to use this tool,” Financial Intelligence Unit head Matis Mäeker said.

“In this way, we consistently send criminals the message that Estonia is not a place to try to launder money,” Mäeker said.

He added that the ruling also recognised the protection of information and analytical methods gathered in proceedings to prevent money laundering. Such work is often hidden from the public and provides input for investigative authorities, he said.

The first attempts to exchange so-called Libyan money took place in Estonia in 2018. Since the Financial Intelligence Unit intervened in 2022, courts have ordered nearly 30,000 euros transferred to state revenues in five cases linked to the same suspected underlying offence.