Speaking to daily Postimees, Parvel Pruunsild, owner of consumer credit provider BigBank and a major donor to political party Isamaa, said: "This [suspicion] has been cobbled together in order to harm my reputation, and most likely to get hold of a computer and look for anything on there to use to create a new narrative. I'm absolutely convinced that this is fishing, in a literal sense."

"After all, I am a major financier of Isamaa. I am aware that I am the subject of an investigation and things are being looked at whereby I could be harmed," the bank's owner went on.

Pruunsild denied all allegations, adding: "I haven't done anything illegal, but after this suspicion was presented to me, I honestly would not be surprised by just about anything that can might be written up about me. I am afraid that this is the dirty aspect to the political struggle, with me as the instrument."

Pruunsild's computer and phone were confiscated Tuesday as part of an Internal Security Service (ISS) swoop, at the same time he was declared suspect in a crime.

The investigation relates to the sale of a former exhibitions hall which had been owned by the Tartu-based Estonian National Museum (ERM) to the Sakala university fraternity (NGO Korp! Sakala).

Pruunsild is a Sakala member; the fraternity recently bought a property at Kuperjanovi 9 in Tartu from the state real estate agency, Riigi Kinnisvara AS (RKAS), for €1.2 million.

According to the ISS suspicions, Pruunsild had put pressure on Tartu deputy mayor Priit Humal (Isamaa) to convince the city to forgo its pre-emptive purchase right on the Kuperjanovi property, to the benefit of Sakala.

Humal handed in his resignation following the suspicions, and stepped down Thursday.

The ISS criminal suspicion concerns procedural restrictions violations.

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