While it was known that Särav owned Bolt share options, which she did not properly declare in her economic interests declaration, their number has only now become clear.

"It is a prefilled form one of the questions in which concerns securities. I pressed the button and nothing came up since I don't own shares on the Tallinn exchange. There were no instructions for manually inputting share options. Once this thing hit the media, I turned to the Ministry of Justice, but they also couldn't tell me anything at first. It turned out I should have added the information about the share options, and I did so right away," Särav now told Eesti Päevaleht's Ärileht.

As of the end of 2022, Bolt had 1.9 million options with an average value of €89.27 the group's annual report reveals. Bolt has not published its 2023 annual report yet.

This puts the value of Särav's share options in 2022 at €32,137. The undersecretary has previously described the value of the shares as "negligible."

"I will add them to my economic interests declaration in May. But as I've said, the options have no practical value. Should Bolt be listed, I will get the opportunity to redeem them and then sell them if I so wish. Today, they are just sitting in an empty account and are worth about the same as air," Särav told ERR in an interview on April 24.

Bolt said that it has no overview of how many politicians or officials could also own its share options.

Earlier this week, Euractiv reported that Bolt aggressively lobbied the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and even offered to draft a letter on behalf of the Estonian government in order to push back against the EU's platform work directive. Part of the communication went via Sandra Särav, who is now deputy secretary general at the ministry.

Särav worked at Bolt from 2019 to 2021 as head of government relations and head of global sustainable development.

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