One Of Europe's Most Wanted Criminals Is Hiding In Minsk
- 20.05.2025, 8:29
A Finnish businessman is wanted in his home country for corruption.
Finnish businessman Arto Kalevi Autio (Autio Arto Kalevi), wanted by Interpol, has been hiding in Belarus for five years, reports Belarusian Investigation Center (BRC). Back in 2024 he was on Europol's most wanted list.
Autio is a figure in the Finnish corruption case of the Youth Foundation (Nuorisosäätiö), a non-governmental organization that owns thousands of apartments where about 5,000 young Finns without their own homes live.
The other defendants in the case have been convicted in Finland, while Autio has been charged with corruption for more than 30 million euros.
The BRC found out that the man was involved in the fact that in 2015 the foundation started investing in luxury real estate outside of Finland, mainly in Estonia, buying property at inflated prices. The participants of the scheme are said to have embezzled the difference in price.
The fund mainly purchased luxury apartments in Tallinn's prestigious Pirita Beach neighborhood. The money for this was borrowed from banks on the security of the property owned by the foundation.
In the framework of this scheme, the foundation not only took loans, but also granted them itself, in particular to the Estonian company Pirita Holding. In 2015, the organization lent it 12.1 million euros. With this money, Pirita Holding bought a plot of land in Tallinn from its parent company Brave Capital. In 2018, Brave Capital sold the subsidiary to the Youth Foundation for €5 million, and the land became the property of the foundation.
After a series of such financial manipulations, about €1.5 million of the €12.1 million loan from Brave Capital was returned to the Youth Foundation's budget.
The Finnish Government's Housing Finance and Development Center, which partially paid for the foundation's activities, upon learning about such investments, immediately demanded that they be stopped. The new management caught the fund on the verge of bankruptcy, although back in 2018 its assets were estimated at €50 million.
The BRC found out that in Belarus, Autio got married and lives in the center of Minsk. In 2018, he registered Amplion Trust LLC in Minsk, whose losses for 2021 and 2022 amounted to 43,000 rubles (more than $16,600 at the time). In addition, in 2022 and 2023, the Ministry of Taxes and Levies recorded Amplion Trust's debt to the budget. The company also owes Minsk-based auditor Baker Tili Bel LLC more than 5 thousand rubles (then over 2 thousand dollars).
According to BRC sources, in 2019 Autio purchased 14 properties in Riga for almost 12 million euros. He has 16 companies in Lithuania, 15 of them are branches of Estonian firms, one has British roots.
Another activity of Autio that has attracted the attention of European law enforcers is gambling. In 2019, he lost out on poker star Patrick Antonius at a tournament in Tallinn. In total, between 2015 and 2019, Autio left about €6 million in Tallinn casinos.
In the spring of 2023, Autio was convicted in Estonia for tax evasion and illegal possession of a weapon - a pistol with a silencer. The tax authorities in that country demanded that he be charged nearly 2 million euros. The man made a deal with the court and pleaded guilty to most of the charges. This allowed him to reduce the amount of the payment by almost 10 times. The appointed term of imprisonment - 2 years and 8 months - was made suspended.
Autio participated in the trial via video link, being in Minsk.
Autio's stay in Belarus was possible because Belarus has not signed a bilateral agreement with Finland on the extradition of criminals, the BRC notes.
It is noteworthy that this year Autio will be able to return to Helsinki without obstacles - in December 2025, the 10-year statute of limitations on suspicion of committing crimes related to the Youth Fund will expire.