New fraud method spreads in Finnish restaurants, researcher warns

A new form of financial crime is taking hold in Finland’s restaurant industry, according to a legal researcher, with customers unaware they may be enabling tax evasion when paying by card.

Businesses are increasingly using foreign bank accounts and payment terminals to divert card transactions directly abroad, bypassing Finnish tax authorities, said Eelis Paukku, a legal scholar specialising in economic crime.

“It’s getting easier all the time to set up foreign bank accounts and obtain payment terminals for them,” Paukku told Yle.

He described tax evasion and shadow economy practices in the restaurant sector as persistent, with methods evolving as oversight improves.

“The shadow economy has always existed and will likely always exist. Only the methods, techniques, and perpetrators change.”

Serious financial crimes in Finland have doubled in four years. Police recorded 1,287 cases of aggravated fraud in 2021, rising to over 2,500 in 2025. Aggravated embezzlement, accounting fraud, and debtor dishonesty cases also increased by 65–101% in the same period.

In Lapland, the Rovaniemi District Court recently sentenced three individuals to suspended prison terms for aggravated financial crimes linked to local pizzerias. Each was convicted of aggravated accounting fraud, tax evasion, and debtor dishonesty. Yle is not naming the restaurants as the offences date back over a decade and the businesses now operate under different ownership.

Lapland’s financial crime figures this year are worse than in previous years, with serious offences reported to police about 25% higher in early 2026 compared to the same period in 2021–2025.