A sign notifying passers-by of surveillance cameras on the premises of Airiston Helmi in Turku on 25 September, 2018. The tourism and accommodation company is reportedly the subject of a massive economic crime investigation. (Credit: Roni Lehti – Lehtikuva)
The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) will lend its expertise to efforts to study the material seized during a series of house searches conducted in South-West Finland on 22–23 September by the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP).
Supo on Thursday said it will seek to determine if the material is in any way linked to its field of expertise and operation.
Established under the Ministry of the Interior, Supo is a national police unit focusing on areas such as counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence and security work. Its core mission is to prevent crimes and undertakings that could endanger social and governmental systems or the internal and external security of Finland.
“Some of the material examined over the first few days of the week is such that going through it will require the analytical and technical expertise of Supo,” reads a press release from Supo.
It reminded that the amount of seized material alone necessitates that considerable resources will have to be allocated for the investigation.
KRP has estimated that a total of 100–200 terabytes of data – enough to fill 50,000–100,000 flash drives with a capacity of two gigabytes – was seized during the house searches conducted last weekend on a total of 17 premises in South-west Finland.
The investigators also discovered roughly three million euros in cash during the searches.
The raids were conducted on the premises of a company that is suspected of laundering millions of euros of money and using undeclared workers for construction projects. Media reports have identified the company as Airiston Helmi, a listed tourism and accommodation company with ties to Russia. KRP, however, has yet to officially confirm such reports.
The District Court of Varsinais-Suomi on Tuesday detained two people in connection with the pre-trial investigation – one on suspicion of aggravated money laundering and aggravated tax fraud, and the other on suspicion of aggravated money laundering and aiding and abetting aggravated tax fraud.
