Finland Times

 

Finnish fur farm. File Photo – Lehtikuva.

The Finnish Customs on Tuesday said its crime prevention unit, the Tax Administration and the police have been investigating a set of offences related to fur trade since the spring of 2013.

In a release, the customs said furs were brought directly from farms in Ostrobothnia.

 

According to the customs, the start of the preliminary investigation showed that a Greek person living in Finland bought about 36,000 blue fox fur hides and around 4,000 mink fur hides from about 30 fur farms during 2008-2013. 

 

Hannu Sinkkonen, the head of investigations from customs said the fur skins are worth around four million euros in total and they were exported by land and plane to Greece and from there to the European community, for instance, Turkey.

 

“The export clearance of the goods to Turkey is suspected to have been made with false invoices, where the worth of the fur hides has been declared as around 10 per cent of their real value,” said Sinkkonen in the release.

 

The preliminary investigations also show that the purchases of the fur hides have been paid by money transfers from Greece and, for instance, different tax havens. The money has been drawn from a bank in Ostrobothnia. 

 

The total amount of the withdrawals is in excess of two million euros and, furthermore, an amount of about two million euros in cash has been brought into Finland by other means. 

 

“Customs has investigated the payment of the goods as aggravated money laundering and the buying as aiding and abetting tax fraud and accounting offences. This part of the preliminary investigation is in its final stages and the matter is being forwarded for consideration of charges,” Sinkkonen said, adding that customs have been cooperating with the authorities from, for instance, Greece, France, Turkey and Dubai as well as Europol.