Attorneys from the Leadell Pilv law firm have successfully defended four former and current Tallinn city officials in a criminal case involving "so-called hidden election advertisements," in which the defendants were accused of having facilitated the acquisition of city budget funds.
According to the firm, the accused city officials were accused of having improperly used funds from the Tallinn city budget to order advertisements for placement in various city districts immediately before 2013 local government elections that were ostensibly related to the provision of physical and mental assistance which – according to the firm – "turned out to be political advertising ... advertis[ing] the politicians of the Estonian Central Party before the elections in order to increase their popularity and the number of votes in the elections."
The Leadell Pilv team argued to the State Prosecutor’s Office that the criminal proceedings should be terminated. According to the firm, "the prosecutor agreed ... that the activities of the defendants cannot be handled as the facilitation of acquisition, [and] therefore the criminal proceeding initiated against these city officials was terminated."
The firm's team consisted of Managing Partner Aivar Pilv, Partner Jaak Siim, and Senior Associate Marko Pilv.
