Estonia, Financial Services, Law and Regulations, Legislation

It can be seen in the overview of the first half-year of the Office of the Prosecutor General that the value of confiscated assets has doubled compared to the same period last year and nearly 1.14 million euros have been confiscated to the state's assets.

"At the same time I'm convinced that confiscating criminal income has to become an inseparable part of proceeding and in that regard we still have room to grow," Perling said.

While in the first half-year criminal income has been confiscated in 98 criminal cases, according to Perling concrete goals have been agreed upon by the prosecutor's office and investigative institutions to raise that number.

According to Perling, large criminal cases where criminals have earned a lot of income have to be especially paid attention to in this regard. "By confiscating illegal income from criminal cases we have the opportunity to contribute to the state budget and hopefully to develop law enforcement institutions," she added.

"A criminal proceeding which started with an operation called Ghost Click and which concluded with the confiscation of the largest sum through the years, or 18 million euros, and the conviction of criminals is an excellent example of successful international cooperation. Cooperation in the framework of this criminal case continues and as proof the United States Department of Justice has announced its readiness to put nearly 800,000 dollars' worth of confiscated criminal income into the Estonian State Treasury," Perling said.

"The wish of our colleagues is that the money would be directed into law enforcement institutions and therefore the prosecutor's office has proposed using it for the development of prosecutors and police officers as well as for increasing technical ability in the field of cyber crime, terrorism and criminal income," Perling said.