DENMARK PAID FOR SHELLS. A 'SOFTWARE FIRM' GOT THE CASH
Denmark wanted to send Ukraine artillery shells. It sent a bag of cash to a software company instead.
The deal
In March 2024, Estonia's then-defense minister Hanno Pevkur asked allies to fund an Estonian program buying artillery shells for Ukraine. On April 23, 2025, Denmark's then-defense minister Troels Lund Poulsen signed on: 317 million kroner. Estonia quickly spent 71 million of it (about €9.5 million) as a prepayment to an Italian company called Datasel, Danish investigative outlet Danwatch reported on October 29.
Shells delivered to Ukraine for that money: zero. Estonian officials confirmed it, and Estonia's defense procurement agency, RKIK, confirmed the €9.5 million figure to Danwatch.
The "arms maker"
Per Danwatch:
- Datasel is still registered as a software developer in Italy's business register. From 2005 to 2024 it built software.
- It has no license to make or sell weapons in Italy.
- It officially shares an office with an Audi dealer in La Spezia.
- It was bought in 2024 by India's Neco Defence. Neither company had ever produced an artillery shell.
- After the takeover, its website suddenly called it a top ammunition supplier. It was illustrated with AI-generated tanks and artillery and five fighter jets lifted from the cover of the Xbox game Ace Combat 6.
Estonia already knew
The Danish cash was not the first payment. In August and October 2024, Estonia had already prepaid Datasel 187 million kroner (€15 million, then €10 million more, per ERR). Nothing showed up. Estonia signed two more contracts anyway, bringing prepayments to around €70 million, part of it EU money. The first shells were due in Ukraine in November 2024. None arrived.
The fallout helped push Pevkur out. He resigned in September.
Where's the money?
Datasel still has it. Estonia is fighting the company in ICC arbitration in Switzerland and before an Estonian court. Datasel's Indian owners refuse to pay it back.
Denmark will be made whole anyway. On October 30, defense minister Jeppe Bruus told Danwatch that Estonia has agreed to return the Danish money, and most of it has already been sent back, whatever the court decides. If Datasel never pays, Estonia covers it.
Datasel disputes the story. It says it got about €59 million in advances and made and delivered, or offered for pickup, goods worth about €58 million. It also argues that "a company's website" is not a reliable measure of what it can produce. No court has ruled yet.
Neither Poulsen nor Bruus would tell Danwatch what Denmark knew about Datasel before it wired the money.
Photo: Troels Lund Poulsen meets Hanno Pevkur, April 23, 2025. Danish Ministry of Defence, via Danwatch.
