Career
On 14 August 2002, Estonian Defence Police arrested Viiol after the Estonian Ministry of Culture had detected suspicious activity regarding management of the Fund"s assets. On 7 January 2003, the Tallinn City Court convicted Viiol of official forgery and grand embezzlement using the simple trial procedure (Estonian: lihtmenetlus). Viiol was sentenced to two years and eight months of imprisonment, then released prematurely in February 2004.
According to Viiol, he lost most of the embezzled funds through playing in casinos, being a compulsive gambler.
Ironically, a significant share of the Fund"s resources comes from the gambling tax Viiol"s conviction led to resignation of Signe Kivi, then Estonian Minister of Culture.
Viiol has made repeated promises to repay his embezzled funds and has refused to apply for personal bankruptcy. However, lacking major sources of income, it"s unlikely he repays a significant part of them, and the Estonian Culture Fund has classified its claims against Viiol as unlikely.
During the five years since his release, Viiol has repaid a total of 23 382 EEK.
Assuming the same average payment rate, the debt would take about 1820 years, or until 3824, to repay. In the public discussion over Viiol"s exploits, the neologism viioldama, a verb form of Viiol"s name, has become a noted slang word for embezzlement. The word is similar to viiuldama, which means to play a violin.