Finland is widely considered as a safe place to live where all the people are trustworthy and stellar examples of residents of the happiest country in the world. Surely no scams or fraud takes place in such place. Wrong. Unfortunately, we see cases of scam and fraud regularly in our line of work. Especially when the economic climate is challenging, people are willing to do more drastic measures for their livelihood – including scamming people.
The victims of scamming or fraud can only contact their legal counsel (or police) after the scamming has already taken place (obviously), which, unfortunately, makes it challenging to rescue their money. Therefore, we highly recommend you to contact your legal counsel before entering into any agreements with new business parties. A small sanity check of the legal structure and cash flows may save you a lot of time and money going forward.
The Finnish Criminal Code states that “a person who, to obtain unlawful economic benefit for him/herself or another person or to cause damage to another person, deceives another person or takes advantage of an error of another person so as to have this person perform or abstain from performing an act, and this way causes economic loss to the deceived person or to the person whose benefit this person is able to dispose, shall be sentenced for fraud to a fine or to imprisonment for at most two years”. Please note that an attempt to commit fraud is also punishable.
In the recent Supreme Court case (KKO:2025:22) an individual was sentenced to imprisonment for close to two years for deceitfully obtaining close to EUR 100,000 from the victim by means that constituted an aggravated fraud.
However, not all hope is lost in case you are a victim of scamming or fraud as there are ways to salvage your investment – or at least part of it. Our experience in fraud cases ranges from finding amicable solutions with the opposing party to assisting in full-scale criminal investigations – from purely domestic cases to cross-border cases.
The rule of thumb is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be sceptic about new business partners and do not take everything at face value. Always require written documentation and never transfer all your money at one go. And always, if in doubt, contact a legal counsel who can assist you in checking the merits of your deal.
So, if you want to conduct a sanity check on your contemplated deal, we are happy to help you. With a small investment in legal & financial check prior to entering into any new agreements, you can save a pretty penny in the long run.
