Gift coupons may indite Parbus

Dec 23, 2008
Monika Hanley

TALLINN- In a surprising turn of events, it may be that a 25,000 kroon travel gift coupon may be the biggest evidence against Ivo Parbus, official of the City of Tallinn arrested on Dec. 5 on corruption charges.

Daily Aripaev reports that police suspect a board member of construction firm Merko to have given Parbus the coupon as a thank you for some favorable negotiations regarding building. The company denies these reports.

However, the daily also reports that the Tallinn official was among many to receive these travel coupons and that Merko is only one of a few companies to be using them as a bartering tool.

As reported earlier, Ivo Parbus, an adviser to the deputy mayor of Tallinn, was taken into custody under suspicion of multiple accounts of bribe-taking. On Dec. 6 the Harju County Court took Parbus into custody at the request of the Northern Circuit Prosecutor's Office, which, after monitoring his activities, accused the advisor of accepting bribes on multiple occasions. The court saw fit to arrest Parbus on the grounds that without apprehension he may continue to engage in illegal activity.

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