BAD COPS MEANS BIG MONEY.

Estonia_s Tax Board warned the efficiency of the economic police in prosecuting tax frauds may lead to an unexpected gap in the budget as the state must pay sales tax refunds and interest to crooked businessmen, the daily Eeesti Paevaleht reported. Tax fraud cases committed in the middle of the 1990s are nearing their statute of limitations and the state will have to make the payment in the absence of convictions. Enriko Aav, Tax Board supervisory department head, said the sum involved may reach hundreds of millions of kroons. An advisor to the Finance Ministry disagreed, saying there is a proposal to increase the statute of limitation from five to seven years. The Tax Board has opened 600 cases in the last five years, but only several dozen have reached the courts.