"Yesterday, January 8, I was taken by surprise over the interest of law enforcement authorities in the activities and transactions of me and my companies AS Trev-2 Grupp and SPK Investeeringud OÜ, which involved searches of my office, home and car," Pertens said in a press statement.

According to Pertens, the police confiscated his mobile phone and so he will continue to use a replacement.

"I was also informed of suspicions over two separate and unrelated episodes. I would like to state here that I do not feel guilty of wrongdoing in either of the two episodes described by the National Criminal Police (Keskkriminaalpolitsei), nor have I caused any harm to anyone," he added.

Pertens said that the first episode concerns the December 2023 sale of real estate belonging to AS TREV-2 Grupp on Tallinn's Lagedi tee.

"According to the charges, I am believed to have acted as a member of the company's board of directors in a way that was not in the company's interests, but in my own personal interests, by selling the properties to an acquaintance and later making a profit by reselling them at a higher price. By way of comment, I can say that I was indeed acting in the role of negotiator and executor of this sale, as it was my job by law, by the company's articles of association and by the decision and authority of the governing body above me – the supervisory board. The price of the real estate sale was determined on the basis of the official act of the professional standard valuer and the appropriateness of that price was also confirmed by AS TREV-2 Grupp's supervisory board," said Pertens.

Pertens told ERR that the price of the land was €280,000.

"As a member of the board, I fulfilled my duty of care, the company was able to dispose of its non-core assets at the market price and within the desired timeframe, and it also raised liquid funds to finance its operations in a road construction market that has plummeted dramatically in the last two years," he added.

Pertens said that the suspected interim profit from the sale of the properties was €60,000 plus VAT. "But it wasn't a windfall profit, the buyer's plans changed. While the buyer had initially intended to build a production base there or develop it in some other way, the economic situation still made it necessary to sell the properties. And as I felt that I was also missing out, as the buyer was a good friend of mine, I did not want him to have any problem with the properties that he had acquired, because I sold them to him as agent for AS Trev-2. After that, I started to look for interested buyers. The sale took place around nine months after the acquisition of these properties," said Pertens.

According to Pertens, the initial buyer was OÜ Teed ja trassid, owned by Tõnu Mühle.

He also said that the second incident relates to the execution of the procurement for the first phase of the of Rail Baltica Harju County's main infrastructure.

"On January 11, 2024, AS TREV-2 Grupp and AllSpark OÜ won the tender as joint contractors. According to the charges, six months later. I am accused of having committed an offence legally classified as 'accepting a bribe in the private sector' in my dealings with one of the subcontractors. In layman's terms, I allegedly abused my position in order to secure a subcontract for a subcontractor through the subcontractor's performance of the work in question. This case is so confusing that I will have to go into it in more detail to find out where this interpretation comes from and who has suffered damage. The allegation is all the more puzzling because the decision over subcontractors in this project, as in all other TREV-2 projects, is made by the project team in consultation with the head of department, not by the chair of the board," said Pertens.

Because no one has offered me a bribe, but that they are referring to some kind of invoice that this company provided to TREV-2. If I had to say a figure off the top of my head, that invoice was for around €7,000," Pertens said.

Pertens became majority shareholder in Trev-2

Pertens said that as of June 2024 he was negotiating to buy a majority stake in AS TREV-2 Group, as the company's current majority shareholder, French construction group Vinci Construction, wanted to exit the business.

"With a sale and purchase agreement signed on August 6, I acquired 82 percent of the shares in AS TREV-2 Grupp. Since then, I have bought additional shares from the co-shareholders at exactly the same price, increasing my stake to 99.3 percent, and I am planning to buy out the last 0.7 percent of shareholders at the same price in the near future. Therefore, my interests are very similar to those of TREV-2's," said Pertens.

Pertens also said that he has no disputes with shareholders. "I have no disputes. All the shareholders I have spoken to have been interested in selling these shares," Pertens said.

"In conclusion, I am now working to clarify the unfoundedness of the suspicions raised during the investigation and the unsubstantiated nature of the reasoning contained in the descriptions of the cases in question as well as the conclusions drawn from them. I hope that we will be able to resolve the misunderstandings during the preliminary investigation, but I am ready to defend my rights in court if necessary. I have been in a similar situation before and  been vindicated by the courts – I also believe that justice and fairness will prevail on this occasion," he added.

According to Pertens, the investigation has harmed the company both in terms of its operations and economically.

Estonian Central Criminal Police comment

Aivar Sepp, head of the corruption at the Estonian National Criminal Police (Keskkriminaalpolitsei),, told ERR that due to the ongoing preliminary investigation, the precise content of the suspicions could not be disclosed to the public. However, Sepp confirmed that on Wednesday, National Criminal Police officers conducted various procedural activities at locations linked to the suspects.

"The National Criminal Police lodged a preliminary suspicion against a 42-year-old man and a company linked to him under the sections on bribery in the private sector, forgery of a document and use of a forged document," Sepp said. "There is also a preliminary suspicion against a 60-year-old man for bribery in the private sector and abuse of trust," he added.

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