Hundreds of Finnish criminals doing business in Estonia to circumvent ban

Hundreds of Finnish criminals doing business in Estonia to circumvent ban. Photo: Kristjan Teedema

More than 900 individuals who have been charged with a serious crime or banned from doing business in Finland are doing business in Tallinn or elsewhere in Estonia, Postimees reported, citing a story by investigative journalists at Finland's public broadcaster Yle.

The journalists have found that convicted Finnish criminals are using Estonia to circumvent the prohibitions on business imposed on them in their own country or to hide their assets from creditors, Yle reported.

They identified 58 persons who are banned from doing business in Finland due to financial crimes, but who continue to do business in Estonia.

A business ban is imposed in cases where a court finds that the person has used a business as a means of committing crimes. A business ban issued in Finland should also apply in Estonia.

The more than 900 individuals identified by the investigation owe more than 40 million euros in Finland, including in tax arrears and penalties for criminal activities.

A significant number of these companies have no real business in Estonia and are merely shells run from Finland. This became evident when an investigative journalist visited the alleged addresses of several such companies as indicated in the Estonian commercial register. For example, according to the commercial register, more than 1,500 companies are registered to a single address in downtown Tallinn.

One cluster of companies belonging to Finns is located in the Pikaliiva area of Tallinn, where over 150 companies, mostly owned by Finns, are registered to an apartment building address. Finnish journalists found no signs of offices or business activity at said address.

Seventeen of the companies registered to the address in question belong to owners who have been convicted of crimes in Finland, with two of them subject to the prohibition on business.

Some of the business owners also have significant outstanding debts. For instance, one individual owes over two million euros, yet has managed to accumulate over 100,000 euros in assets via their Estonian company.

According to the report by investigative journalists at Yle, the activities of Finnish economic criminals in Estonia often go unnoticed.

Estonia's national bureau of investigation meanwhile declined comment and a request for an interview.

Yle argues that the damage caused by Finnish economic criminals typically is most visible in Finland, which may explain why the authorities in Estonia are not particularly keen to investigate these cases.