Savisaar adviser quits over accusations of fraud

  • 2002-01-24
  • TBT staff
TALLINN - An adviser to Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar has resigned due to criminal charges evoked by a story in the daily Eesti Paevaleht.

According to the paper, Jaan Omblus, Savisaar's economic adviser since he took the mayoral post in Dec. 2001, has been a business partner for several Estonian companies over the last few years. He had promised to find investments for them, but led one firm to bankruptcy.

The daily wrote on Jan. 21 that Omblus uses five or six swindle schemes and never signs any papers himself. He participates in business transactions through other people working for him.

At least three companies lost between 100,000 kroons ($5,700) and 200,000 kroons after dealing with Omblus. One wood processing firm went bankrupt.

Eesti Paevaleht also wrote that the Center Party was aware of Omblus' controversial background when hiring him.

Estonia's Economy Police reported that police forces in the cities of Tartu and Valga are now investigating Omblus' shady business deals.

Omblus declined to admit the accusations in Eesti Paevaleht, saying the story must have been given to the paper by his personal enemies to blacken his reputation.

Nevertheless, he handed his resignation to Tallinn's city administration the next day.

"I do not consider it possible to continue working for the city administration as I do not want my personal affairs reported in the local media to be connected with my employer, whose reputation might suffer," he wrote.

He will not receive any compensation as his period of employment barely passed a single month.

Omblus, 30, a graduate of Tartu University's faculty of economics, has an earlier criminal record. According to Parnu City Court, in May 1995 he was found guilty of stealing over 26,000 kroons from his business partner. Later that year the state court confirmed the ruling, rejecting Omblus' appeal.

Omblus was also a board member of the infamous Maapank, which went bankrupt in 1998.

On the day the damaging article was published, the Moderates faction of Tallinn City Council demanded that Savisaar fire Omblus due to what it called his alleged participation in financial swindles throughout the southern part of the country.

"The information published in Eesti Paevaleht has damaged the reputation of the Tallinn administration," said Jaak Juske, an adviser to the faction.