Estonian Artists Were Robbed of €700,000. Without Taking a Single Painting! 0 11

According to the head of the Põhja Prefecture Criminal Bureau, Rait Pikaro, this incident is part of an avalanche of fraud that has swept through Estonia in recent years, affecting both ordinary residents of the country and numerous firms and institutions.

Pikaro stated that the first contact from the fraudsters with the chief accountant of EKL occurred on May 7. They called her supposedly from the Omniva delivery center and informed her of the need to deliver a registered letter to the former president of the union. To do this, the fraudsters asked the accountant to identify herself, which she did by entering PIN codes on the platform they provided.

Then came a call allegedly from the Bank of Estonia, which informed her that she had become a victim of a cyberattack and urgent measures were needed to protect the money in her accounts. "Then they called again, this time in the name of the police, asking her to prepare fake documents, and eventually convinced the victim that she was participating in a secret police operation to catch criminals," Pikaro described what happened.

According to him, the fraudsters gained full control over EKL's accounts, and the fraudulent scheme continued for another week. Among other things, the chief accountant handed over her personal bank cards to the criminals, leaving them in a parcel machine.

When the police received information about the incident from the bank on May 15 and responded promptly, the fraudsters were still acting on the chief accountant's computer. "We managed to immediately stop this process. However, by that time, the money had already been transferred to accounts in five foreign countries, and the prospect of recovery is minimal," Pikaro said.

The police have opened a criminal case under the article on computer fraud.

The president of the Estonian Artists' Union, Maarin Ekterman, reported that on May 15 at around 1:00 PM, she received a call from the bank informing her of suspicious transactions on the union's accounts conducted through the chief accountant's account.

"Our union has accounts in both Swedbank and SEB, and the attack affected accounts in both banks," Ekterman explained.

According to her, she determined the extent of the damage, immediately filed a report with the police, and informed the Ministry of Culture about the incident. Preliminary estimates indicate that the fraudsters stole about €700,000 from the union's accounts. Pikaro added that the criminals also obtained the accountant's personal savings amounting to around twenty thousand euros.

Ekterman stated that the accounts of EKL contained funds received through targeted financing from the Ministry of Culture intended for creative grants and salary payments to artists. There was also money for the operational activities of galleries from the Ministry of Culture, the city of Tallinn, and the Culture Capital Foundation (Kultuurkapital), as well as the union's own income.

Ekterman reported that she convened an extraordinary council of the union, where it was decided to create a crisis committee. "We will be able to pay salaries for May, and we will not have debts to service providers at this time, but what will happen in the coming months will have to be decided by the crisis committee," Ekterman said.

According to her, the union has assets in the form of real estate and works of art that can be liquidated, and it seems that this will have to be done.