US embassy cable - 04HELSINKI1592

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HELSINKI 001592 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM, PTER, KSEP, SNAR, KTFN, EFIN, FI 
SUBJECT: MONEY LAUNDERING AND FINANCIAL CRIMES IN FINLAND: 
SUBMISSION TO PART II OF 2004-2005 INCSR 
 
 
1. Summary:  The following is Embassy Helsinki's submission 
to the money laundering and financial crimes section of the 
2004-2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 
(INCSR). End summary. 
 
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Overview 
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2. Finland is not a regional center for money laundering, 
financial crime or illegal commerce. A "Corruption 
Perceptions Index" survey taken by Transparency 
International, which evaluates countries based on experts' 
perceptions of corruption, ranked Finland in first place as 
the country perceived around the world to be the least 
corrupt. Nonetheless, Finnish authorities are concerned 
about links to organized crime, as well as money laundering 
arising from fraud or other economic crime. To date, no 
Finnish (or Finland-based) individuals or organizations have 
been suspected of financing terrorism. 
 
3. The Money Laundering Clearing House (MLCH), established 
under the National Bureau of Investigation in March 1998, 
receives and investigates reports of suspicious transactions 
from obligated reporting institutions. The Clearing House 
has authority to initiate investigations before the basis of 
a pre-trial investigation has been established. The Clearing 
House also has the ability to freeze a transaction for up to 
five business days in order to determine the legitimacy of 
the funds. The responsibilities of the Clearing House were 
expanded in 2003 to include the prevention of terrorist 
financing. 
 
4. The Clearing House received 4,132 suspicious transaction 
reports (STRs) in 2004, 2,716 in 2003, 2,718 in 2002, and 
2,796 in 2001. A majority of the reports-roughly four- 
fifths-concerned money laundering; the remainder consisted 
mostly of U.S., EU and/or UN designations of entities 
suspected of terrorist financing. Of the cases forwarded to 
pre-trial criminal investigation, the most common offenses 
were tax fraud (25 percent), narcotics offenses (13 
percent), fraud (12 percent) and receiving offense (11 
percent). 
 
5. Money laundering represents about 10 percent of all 
financial crime in Finland. Financial crime--not limited to 
money laundering--has remained steady over the past three 
years (approximately 1600 cases per year). As of the 
preparation of this report, no information is available on 
the number of arrests and/or prosecutions for money 
laundering in 2004. However, the scale of the problem is 
relatively minor. Between 1994-2002, 93 people were arrested 
for money laundering. Of those, 83 people were convicted. 
 
6. A majority of STRs involve at least one foreign party. 
Nationals from 84 countries were mentioned in the reports. 
To some extent, this internationalization is due to the 
receipt of terrorist financing related STRs. Of the money 
laundering STRs, the most-represented suspect nationalities 
were Finnish (48%), Russian (16.5%), Estonian (4.8%) and 
Swedish (1.6%). Criminal proceeds laundered in Finland 
derive mainly from domestic criminal activity. Local 
narcotics trafficking organizations as well as a small 
number of local organized crime groups control some of the 
money-laundering proceeds. 
 
7. Of all the reporting agencies, currency exchange 
companies are the most active in reporting suspicious 
transactions, accounting for 70% of all money laundering 
STR's. Other reporting entities include banks (19%), non- 
Police national authorities such as Customs and the Frontier 
Guard (7%) and insurance companies (1%). Reports from the 
National Police account for approximately 0.6% of all STR's. 
The Act on Preventing and Clearing Money Laundering protects 
individuals that cooperate with law enforcement entities. 
 
8. Money laundering occasionally occurs within offshore 
financial centers. Finland has not enacted secrecy laws that 
prevent disclosure of client and ownership information by 
domestic and offshore financial services companies to bank 
supervisors and law enforcement authorities. Finland does 
not have any cross-border transaction reporting 
requirements. However, Finnish authorities have addressed 
the problem of the international transportation of illegal 
source currency and monetary instruments in the Customs Act 
(sections 13-20). 
 
9. No Finnish entities or officials are known to encourage, 
facilitate or engage in laundering the proceeds from illegal 
drug transactions, from other serious crimes, or from 
terrorist financing. Neither have there been any reports of 
Finland's financial institutions engaging in currency 
transactions involving international narcotics trafficking 
proceeds that include significant amounts of United States 
currency or currency derived from illegal drug sales in the 
United States. 
 
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Money Laundering & Financial Crimes Legislation 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
10. In 1994, Finland enacted legislation criminalizing money 
laundering related to all serious crimes. The Act of 
Preventing and Clearing Money Laundering (Money Laundering 
Act), which passed in 1998, compels credit and financial 
institutions, investment and fund management companies, 
insurance brokers and insurance companies, real estate 
agents, pawn shops, betting services, casinos, and most non- 
bank financial institutions to report suspicious 
transactions. Management companies and custodians of mutual 
funds were added as covered entities in the Money Laundering 
Act in 1999. 
 
11. Apartment rental agencies, auditors, auctioneers, 
lawyers, accountants, and dealers in high value goods were 
added when amendments to the Act came into force in 2003. 
Also included are the businesses and professions that 
practice other payment transfers in the field of financing 
that are not referred to in the Credit Institutions Act, 
such as "hawala." According to the Money Laundering Act, an 
obliged party must identify customers, exercise due 
diligence and report suspicious activity. 
 
12. In December 2002 the Parliament accepted amendments to 
the Penal Code, which came into force on April 1, 2003. The 
amendments included the differentiation of penalty 
provisions concerning money laundering and traditional 
receiving offense in order to clarify the law where some 
actions could be punishable on the basis of both the 
receiving offense and money laundering penalty provisions, 
and to emphasize in legislation the criminality of money 
laundering and its relevance to serious organized crime. 
Prior to the amendments, the definition of money laundering 
was limited only to property gained through crime. 
 
13. The new amendments expand the definition to include 
negligence and the usage or transmission of property gained 
through an offense and its proceeds or property replacing 
such property, as well as bringing under the law those who 
assist in activities of concealment or laundering. With the 
differentiation of money laundering from the traditional 
receiving offense, the receiving offense penal scale now 
corresponds to the basic penal scale of other economic 
offenses, and the money laundering penal scale is set to 
meet international standards, with sanctions of up to six 
years of imprisonment. 
 
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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 
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14. Finland is a member of the Financial Action Task Force 
(FATF) and the Council of Europe. The MLCH is a member of 
the Egmont Group. Finland also cooperates with the European 
Union, Europol, the United Nations, Interpol, the Baltic Sea 
Task Force, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and 
Development and other international agencies designed to 
combat organized crime. Finland is a party to the 1988 UN 
Drug Convention and has signed the UN Convention against 
Transnational Organized Crime. Finland is also a party to 
the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, 
Seizure, and Confiscation of Proceeds from Crime. 
 
15. Finland has enacted laws for the sharing with other 
governments of seized narcotics assets, as well as the 
assets from other serious crimes. Finland is party to the 
Vienna and Strasbourg Conventions, and has signed the 
European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal 
Matters, under which other countries may be afforded a 
considerable amount of legal assistance. Finland has also 
concluded numerous bilateral law enforcement cooperation 
agreements. In September 1989, Finland signed a tax treaty 
with the United States, replacing a previous treaty signed 
in 1970. The current treaty has provisions to exchange 
information for investigative purposes. 
 
16. The MLCH may exchange information with other Financial 
Intelligence Units (FIUs) and with bodies engaged in 
criminal investigations, such as police services and public 
prosecutors. Although no Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 
is required for this purpose under Finnish law, MOUs have 
been concluded with Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Latvia, 
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, 
Korea, Canada, Russia and Albania. The information exchanged 
may only be used for the prevention and clearing of money- 
laundering transactions. Consequently, the information 
obtained may only be used as evidence with the approval of 
the MLCH. 
 
17. The MLCH's action in response to a request for 
information on a given person or organization differs from 
case to case. In most cases, the MLCH simply hands over the 
requested information and no other measures are taken. If 
the MLCH has already received a STR related to the person or 
entity, the Anti-Money-Laundering Act allows it to start a 
police investigation. Under the Pre-trial Investigation Act, 
the police must institute an investigation if an offence is 
reported or suspected in Finland. 
 
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ASSET FREEZING 
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18. From January-November 2004 the Money Laundering Clearing 
House gave 24 orders to freeze assets/suspend transactions. 
The total value of these transactions was $1.7 million (EUR 
1,398,398). With these orders, the Money Laundering Clearing 
House recovered $630,000 of criminal proceeds. Most cases 
involved money laundering and financial crime. In 2003, the 
Clearing House gave 16 orders to freeze assets/suspend 
transactions. The total value of these transactions was 
approximately $1.8 million, a significant increase from 2002 
($900,000) and 2001 ($720,000). With these orders, 
authorities recovered criminal proceeds totaling over $1.5 
million (compared to approximately $5,000 in 2002 and 
$650,000 in 2001). 
 
19. According to the Penal Code Chapter 10 Section 2, the 
proceeds of crime shall be given to the injured party. If a 
claim for compensation or restitution has not been filed, 
Finnish authorities can order forfeiture. With some 
exceptions, only the proceeds of a crime can be forfeited. 
Legitimate businesses can be seized if used to launder drug 
money or support terrorist activity. 
 
20. Finnish authorities do not have national authority to 
permanently suspend transactions or forfeit assets 
independent of a judicial process. Although the authority to 
freeze assets rests with the National Bureau of 
Investigation, officials at the MLCH consult and coordinate 
with other branches of government, including the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry 
of Finance. 
 
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Terrorist Financing Legislation 
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21. Finland became a party to the UN International 
Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism 
on June 28, 2002. The penal code of Finland was amended at 
the end of 2002 with the addition of a new chapter on 
terrorism (Chapter 34 a). According to Section 5 of the 
amendment, a person who directly or indirectly provides or 
collects funds in order to finance a terrorist act or who is 
aware that these funds shall finance a terrorist act, 
commits a punishable offence. 
 
22. In January 2003 the Parliament accepted amendments to 
the Money Laundering Act bringing it in line with the FATF 
Eight Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing, the UN 
International Convention for the Suppression of the 
Financing of Terrorism and the amendments to the EU 
Directive on Money Laundering. 
 
23. Finland has national authority to freeze terrorist 
assets. The Money Laundering Clearing House performs 
investigations on all individuals suspected of financing 
terrorist acts, including all individuals and entities on 
the UN 1267 sanctions committee's consolidated list. To date 
no Finns have been suspected of financing terrorism and no 
funds of foreign nationals suspected of terrorist financing 
have been located in Finland. In the event that funds are 
found, the assets could be frozen without undue delay for 
five business days. For the funds to remain frozen, a 
criminal investigation must be launched (either in Finland 
or abroad). The funds would remain frozen for the period of 
the investigation. 
 
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Free Trade Zones 
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24. Finland has four Free Zones and seven Free Warehouse 
areas. The four designated Free Zones are located in Hanko 
(southern Customs District), Hamina and Lappeenranta 
(Eastern customs district), and Turku (Western Customs 
District). The seven Free Warehouses are located in Helsinki 
(southern customs district), Naantali, Pori, Rauma, Vaasa 
(Western Customs District), Kemi and Oulu (Northern customs 
district). 
 
25. In Finland, the duty-free free zone and warehouse 
licenses have in most cases been granted to municipalities 
or cities, but one or several commercial operators, approved 
by the customs districts, are usually in charge of 
warehousing operations within the area. The duty-free 
storage areas are available to both domestic and foreign- 
owned companies. The free zone area regulations have been 
harmonized in the EU by the Community Customs Code. 
 
26. Finnish Free Trade Zones often serve as a transit points 
for shipments of good to and from Russia. Many goods 
originating in East Asia and destined for St. Petersburg or 
Moscow, are transported on the trans-Siberian railway to the 
Lappeenranta Free Trade Zone, where they are temporarily 
stored. These are mostly high-valued goods, whose passage 
offers safety and tax incentives to Russian consumers. There 
are no indications that these zones are being used in trade- 
based money launderings schemes or by the financiers of 
terrorism. There are no supervisory programs and/or due 
diligence procedures in place to monitor activities in the 
free trade zones. 
 
WEISBERG#