False document put kroon at risk

TALLINN - Eesti Pank president Ardo Hansson said that the crisis at the banks connected to the scandalous VEB fund endangered the Estonian kroon, reports Public Broadcasting.
“No one can prove it completely and scientifically, but I think that the Estonian kroon was in danger. We could have let all three banks go under and say that creditors would get what they get. If it had been done at that wide scope, it would have had a very bad effect on the economy and endangered the kroon,” Hansson said on ETV’s talk show ‘Dialogue’ on Jan. 31.
“If the second option would have been chosen, the very gentle one, that let us rescue all, then the state budget could have collapsed and the kroon would have been in danger,” said Hansson.

He said that the government was under big pressure then, since the sums of money were big. “I think that the responsibility about the future of the Estonian kroon influenced these solutions,” said Hansson.
Eesti Pank concluded in an audit revealed recently that a document using false data was compiled in Estonia’s central bank Eesti Pank in 1995 that gave Russian company TSL 32 million dollars’ worth of demands against the Russian Vneshekonombank (VEB). The letter allegedly contained claims that belonged at that time to the Estonian government and Eesti Pank and was meant to help TSL to get money from VEB, since Russia had announced that it would open the frozen accounts to corporate persons who were Russian residents.