In 2020, Advanced Sports Installations Europe entered into a contract with the European Investment Fund worth nearly €1.7 million. The European Union supported the project, titled "Transparent global model for operating the synthetic turf industry in a sustainable and circular way," which was supposed to last four years and be completed by February of this year. However, according to the prosecutor's office, the company did not carry out the project as promised in the contract, though it had received about €675,000 of the funding.

The company was one of Europe's leading builders and maintainers of artificial turf fields, having renovated and built more than 1,200 football fields in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Central Europe.

In 2016, the company also participated in the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, receiving €1.6 million in funding.

"We have ambitious plans as the technology and its benefits become more widely known," the former CEO commented on the company's development plans. Currently, his bank account and savings account have been frozen due to suspicions by the prosecutor's office.

With the support of the program, Advanced Sports Installations Europe developed a synthetic turf recycling technology called ARENA. The total budget for the project was €2.3 million, and it lasted two years. Thanks to the ARENA recycling technology, the company was awarded the title of Estonia's Environmentally Friendly Company of the Year in 2017.

"If someone has a million and receives a million in support, they are actually spending their own money, not the support," said defense attorney Silver Reinsaar, who represented the suspect in court.

Reinsaar argued that the former CEO is not guilty of defrauding EU funds and claimed that the CEO was not even aware that the company was not executing the project.

The suspect was the CEO of Advanced Sports Installations Europe from 2013 to 2020 and signed the 2020 contract with the European Union as the legal representative. He resigned from the position in December of the same year.

According to Kati Maitse-Pärkna, the delegated prosecutor from the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the former CEO's actions constitute benefit fraud. Benefit fraud is defined as obtaining free or partially free funds from the state budget, local government or other public resources through deceit, or using such funds for purposes other than intended. This crime is punishable by either a fine or up to five years in prison.

Advanced Sports Installations Europe began operations in 1992. The company was entirely based on Estonian capital, and its owner was entrepreneur Raul Lättemägi.

In 2019, the company was accused by Norwegian media of illegally exporting environmentally hazardous artificial turf from the country. Norwegian journalist Trine Melheim Naess from TV2 told ERR that the television channel had produced several news reports about the Estonian company. "We know that the company has stored artificial turf fields across Europe and that they do not have the recycling technology they claim to have," she said. "The big question is where the old fields end up and what they have spent their money on."

According to reports, Advanced Sports Installations Europe removed old artificial turf from a stadium in Norway for disposal, but it was instead installed at a stadium in Croatia. The company had been removing artificial turf from Norway for years, but according to the TV channel, it had never received permits to export the turf as waste.

Advanced Sports Installations Europe last published an annual report in 2018. While the company's turnover in 2017 was nearly €2 million with a profit of €42,000, in 2018, the turnover was €2.2 million, but the company reported a loss of €150,000. The company declared bankruptcy in 2022.

Advanced Sports Installations Europe was removed from the business registry in January 2023 and no longer exists.

The investigation became public in early August during a hearing at the Tallinn Circuit Court, where a motion related to the criminal case was discussed. The preliminary investigation is ongoing.

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