A Helsinki District Court has sentenced the CEO of a cleaning company to one year and 10 months in prison for aggravated fraud and other offences after the company collected illegal “entrance fees” from foreign job seekers without any intention of hiring them, Finnish media Yle reports.
According to the court, nearly 90 people applied for residence permits through the company. Most of the applicants were from the Philippines.
The victims paid between 500 and 3,000 euros in the hope of securing jobs and residence permits in Finland. However, none of them was ever employed.
The district court said the recruitment process appeared to have been designed solely to collect fees rather than recruit workers. Charging job seekers such fees is illegal in Finland.
The court found that the CEO received more than 60,000 euros in criminal proceeds during 2022 and 2023. It also noted that the financial losses caused significant harm to the victims.
Two other people were convicted of aiding and abetting the fraud, while charges against another defendant were dismissed.
The judgment can still be appealed.
The case follows an earlier Yle report that Helsinki Police suspected two Filipino cleaning entrepreneurs of aggravated theft and organising illegal immigration. However, it was not immediately clear whether Wednesday’s ruling concerned one of those companies.
