Arrested Estonian admits fleeing raps in own country

MANILA, Philippines - An Estonian businessman, jailed on robbery-extortion charges filed by a television newscaster’s son, admitted that he fled from charges filed against him in his country, police said yesterday.

Urmas Saask, 36, alias Veikoo Soori, is the subject of an International Police (Interpol) red notice filed by the Estonian government, which asked any country holding him to extradite him to face charges, according to Superintendent Remus Medina, intelligence chief of the Eastern Police District (EPD).

Saask said one of the cases he faces involves a Mercedes Benz he bought from Germany. Saask claimed that he turned the vehicle over to a friend, with the understanding that the latter would continue paying the amortization.

He said his friend reneged on the payments and he is now being hunted by the Estonian police, Medina said.

Medina added that Saask had a cellular phone business in Estonia that got him into trouble and resulted in the filing of large-scale fraud, use of counterfeit documents and submission of false information cases against him.

Saask said that because of the charges against him, he fled to China, where he met Filipina Lilian Docot, alias Ayumi Cha, 29, Medina said.

Medina said the two arrived in the country in 2009 and started a business distributing spare parts of Apple products – imported from China – to vendors in Greenhills, San Juan City.

Saask told Medina that he was doing well until he figured in a minor traffic accident with Arnauld Ymanuel Clavio, 23, a son of GMA 7 newscaster Arnold Clavio, in Mandaluyong City last Jan. 29.

The younger Clavio said in his complaint that he was taking pictures of the damage to his car with his iPhone 5 when Saask grabbed the cell phone and sped away in his Mercedes Benz SL5.

Saask demanded P28,000 to return the cell phone, Clavio told police. The Estonian was arrested by Medina in an entrapment in Taguig City last Thursday.

A Taguig prosecutor ordered Saask released but directed him to submit his counter-affidavit during the preliminary investigation of the case on Feb. 19 and 26.

Medina said Saask wanted to go straight to the airport and leave for China but EPD director Chief Superintendent Miguel Laurel ordered him detained further because of the Interpol red notice.

Saask is being held at the EPD annex building in Pasig as Laurel is waiting for the Bureau of Immigration and the Estonian embassy to decide on what to do with him.