Finnish Court upholds conviction of woman for serious money laundering in romance scam

A Finnish Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a woman in her fifties for serious money laundering. The Pirkanmaa District Court initially sentenced her to six months of suspended imprisonment and ordered her to pay €35,000 in damages to another woman. The case originated from a romance scam that involved at least two victims.

The incident began when the convicted woman received €35,000 in her account, transferred by another woman who had also fallen victim to the scam. The victim was led to believe that the convicted woman was an “agent” able to release a man posing as “Andy” from customs at the airport. The woman accepted the funds, converted them into bitcoin, and kept €500 for herself while sending the remainder to the scammers, with neither woman ever seeing the money again.

The convicted woman was also a victim of a romance scam, having been contacted via Facebook in 2018. She received multiple daily messages from a person styled as “Mr. Brown,” who professed love for her and her children. The man would sometimes call or send images, yet his face was never visible. He provided various excuses for needing funds, claiming he was famous in the U.S. and had to use a false name.

The court determined that the woman should have questioned a sudden deposit of €35,000 from another Finnish woman in 2021, as well as the instruction to convert it into cryptocurrency. They found the romance scammer’s story to be suspicious and noted that the man’s complete financial destitution should have raised red flags. The appeal court concluded that the woman was guilty of serious money laundering, despite being a victim herself. She expressed that she read about similar scams in the news but did not think rationally while emotionally involved. There is an option to seek leave for an appeal to the Supreme Court.