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SS: Some WinCapita Ponzi scheme victims to soon receive compensation

Regional daily Savon Sanomat reports that the Finnish state is preparing to pay millions of euros in compensation to about one thousand victims of the WinCapita pyramid scheme, which first garnered the interest of law enforcement in 2008. The WinCapita scheme remains one of the biggest cases of fraud in Finnish history.

WinCapita-käräjät Kuopion käräjäoikeudessa
The trial of WinCapita at Kuopio District Court, in March 2014. File photo. Image: Pertti Huotari / Yle

Savon Sanomat reports on Thursday that the Ministry of Justice has set aside some eight million euros - of funds seized from the investment firm which devised the scheme -  in order to pay more than one thousand claimants awaiting compensation.

Between the years of 2005 to 2008, WinCapita presented itself as an invitation-only foreign exchange investment club promising four-fold returns on initial thousand-euro investments.

More than 10,000 people invested more than 100 million euros in the firm.

The claimants' compensation will not be coming directly from the state, but funds the scheme's organisers were forced to surrender.

The National Bureau of Investigation first started looking into the WinCapita's operations in March 2008. The main suspect, Hannu Kailajärvi, was found hiding in a cottage in Sweden in December 2008.

Three years later, in December 2011, the District Court of Vantaa found Kailajärvi guilty of aggravated fraud and sentenced him to four years in prison.

In February 2013, the Court of Appeal of Helsinki found Kailajärvi guilty of aggravated fraud and a money collection offence, and increased his prison sentence to five years. That verdict was upheld by Finland’s Supreme Court.

In 2014, claims for damages arising from the case amounted to nearly 37 million euros.