Two former deputy property managers of the City of Helsinki are suspected of defrauding of more than 600,000 euros in between 2023 and 2025, said police in a press release on Wednesday.
The two officials committed the aggravated fraud together with a subcontractor working for the city.
They are suspected of colluding with the contractor to over-invoice for work including flat renovations. The scheme is alleged to have been split among three suspects.
Since late autumn 2025, Helsinki Police have been carrying out a pre-trial investigation into aggravated fraud and the case is expected to move to consideration of charges later this year.
Meanwhile, Helsinki Police have made effective progress in seizing the proceeds sought through economic crime.
In the first half of 2026, the police recovered around 1.8 million in criminally acquired assets. In 2025, a total of around 3.5 million in criminal proceeds was recovered.
At the same time, the economic pressures facing society are becoming increasingly visible in economic crime.
The environment for investigating economic crime has grown more demanding in recent years.
In Helsinki, the number of debtor's offences in particular has almost doubled within a few years. This trend is linked to a sharp rise in company bankruptcies.
In 2025, around 3,300 companies in Finland were declared bankrupt, compared with around 3,000 the year before and around 2,700 in 2023.
This rise in bankruptcies is reflected directly in the number of debtor's offences reported to the police. It also adds to the workload across the whole criminal justice chain, from the police to the Prosecution Service and the courts.
The number of reported economic crimes has risen steadily throughout the 2020s. In 2025, almost 2,800 economic crimes were reported in Finland, around 560 of them in Helsinki. Police departments in the Helsinki metropolitan area recorded around 45 per cent of all economic crimes reported in Finland.
The most common economic crimes are tax fraud, dishonesty by a debtor, accounting offences, and fraud committed in business operations.
Economic crime has also become more international. Money is increasingly moved abroad, and cryptocurrencies are used as a means of transferring funds linked to economic crime. As a result, investigating economic crime increasingly requires international cooperation between authorities.
"Recovering criminal proceeds is one of the most effective ways to tackle economic crime. The international nature of economic crime, and the constantly changing methods used by offenders, mean that authorities must cooperate effectively, both within Finland and internationally," said Lauri Huittinen, Detective Superintendent and Head of Economic Crime Investigations of the Helsinki Police Crime Investigation Unit in the press release.
In spring 2026, a large pre-trial investigation into the grey economy was passed from Helsinki Police to consideration of charges. The investigation covered two sets of offences, in which people from a partly overlapping circle are suspected of committing numerous economic crimes.
- Ex employees
- Helsinki City
- €600K fraud
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
