More than 2,600 financial crime cases were reported to police last year, an all-time record number, the Finnish Tax Administration said on Thursday.
Authorities have detected a growing number of complex criminal cases that may involve money laundering, worker exploitation, identity theft and social security fraud as well as failure to pay pension, unemployment and accident insurance fees.
Some of these cases involve international and domestic organised crime as well as professional accomplices, tax officials said.
Forced self-employment in the shadow economy
"Bogus and forced self-employment have become common phenomena of the shadow economy and permanent parts of labour exploitation. Disguising an employment relationship as entrepreneurship is especially prevalent in construction but has also been found in the cleaning sector, car repair shops, car washes and seasonal work," the Tax Administration said in a press release.
In 2024, the police registered a record 2,619 financial offences, an increase of around 10 percent from the previous year.
There was a particularly sharp rise in the number of crimes related to bankruptcies. Authorities attribute this to the precarious economic situation and the expanding number of bankruptcies.