Permitgate Investigators Find No Rental Connection to Kabrits
The Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Committee investigating the recent residence permit scandal has found no rental income connection between one of the politicians under scrutiny, MP Siim Kabrits, and the Old Town apartment where the scheme was operating.
The case, which broke in late-November, involved top-level IRL politicians arranging residence permits for wealthy Russian and CIS entrepreneurs through the latters' investments in several dormant enterprises, all registered in the apartment.
The committee established on January 16 that Kabrits's company, Alistar Consult, received no rental income from the apartment, Postimees reported.
The head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, Social Democrat Andres Anvelt, said the committee was interested in establishing precisely what relationship Siim Kabrits's company had with the companies registered in the apartment.
“The committee today found that Kabrits has never belonged directly to the board of the firm that owned that Old Town property. He was one of the founders of the company through investment, but his firm never received rental income from that,” Anvelt said.
The finding supports Kabrits' assertion that he committed no wrongdoing as his role in the permit-procuring scheme was confined to his being a co-owner of the property in which his colleagues operated.
Steve Roman