A man who the Tax Administration listed as Finland's top earner in 2021 said that a mistake was made, and that the error was most likely his.
As it does every autumn, on Wednesday morning, the tax authority published a list of people who earned more than 100,000 euros last year.
The person who was listed at the top came as a surprise to many, however.
The administration said that Juhapekka Tapani Piiroinen, the chief and sole employee of a firm called Goofy Unicorn, reportedly earned 133.7 million euros.
The sum was a good deal more than others on the list.
However, not long after the list was published Piironen told Helsingin Sanomat that he must have made a mistake when he entered his income and that he had not earned that kind of money.
"I bet when I made that declaration that evening, it was a brain fart," he said, referring to his filing of cryptocurrency earnings into a Tax Administration online form.
The tax authority has confirmed to Yle that it had not detected any sign of errors or fraud in its systems. An agency representative told STT that it had not yet received a correction request from Piiroinen as of mid-morning on Wednesday.
In his late 30s, Piiroinen is employed as a programmer at Critical Force, a gaming company based in Kajaani. According to tax records, he earned around 50,000 euros working at the firm in 2021.
However, later on Wednesday, Piiroinen told STT that his real income last year amounted to around 26,000 euros.
1337
The specific figure of 133.7 million euros is now thought to be linked to an inside joke born in the early days of the web.
1337 is a language used by some internet users that replaces letters with numbers or symbols.
Over the years, leet-inspired language among coders has evolved into more mainstream internet slang, with concocted numeric-mixed words including 'warez' for software, 'w00t' as an exclamation of happiness and 'n00b' which translates into newbie, or beginner.
On his LinkedIn page, Piiroinen is listed as founding a company called 1337 Software in 2012. Official documentation of his listed firm, Goofy Unicorn, also includes the number series.
The firm has a stated "133,700 shares," as well. However, according to financial data services firm Suomen Asiakastieto, the value of Goofy Unicorn's shares is nil.
The coder's boss, Critical Force CEO, Veli-Pekka Piirainen, told Yle that he was shocked after the broadcaster asked about his employee's reported massive earnings.
"We have wondered the same thing here. He would hardly be a coder with us anymore if he had made that kind of income," Piirainen said.
Edited at 12:59 to clarify the definition of 1337-related terms.