Prosecutors accuse Airiston Helmi of disguising operations

The financial crime case involving Airiston Helmi began at the Turku Court of Appeal, with prosecutors accusing the company and its Russian owner, Pavel Melnikov, of disguising their activities as accommodation and travel services, Yle reports.

Prosecutors say the company never actually operated in tourism. They allege that Airiston Helmi failed to pay value added tax and paid undeclared wages to employees.

Melnikov faces charges of aggravated tax fraud, aggravated accounting offence and aggravated fraud involving employee pension insurance contributions. Prosecutors are also seeking an order requiring Airiston Helmi to forfeit about 770,000 euros to the state as financial benefit from the alleged pension insurance fraud.

Four other people who worked for Airiston Helmi are also defendants. Prosecutors believe some of them helped pay undeclared wages, including through cash withdrawals. The District Court rejected the charges against the employees last year. The defence denies all charges and says the company operated lawfully.

The case stems from a highly publicised search operation carried out by Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation in the Turku archipelago in September 2018. Around 100 people took part in the searches of Airiston Helmi’s properties, and a flight ban was imposed over the sea area. Investigators found, among other things, 3.5 million euros in cash.

After several years of investigation, the Southwest Finland District Court sentenced Melnikov in February 2025 to 18 months of suspended imprisonment for aggravated tax fraud and aggravated accounting offence. Prosecutors had sought a five-year prison sentence. The court’s decision to impose a suspended sentence was attributed to the length of the investigation and trial.

Both Melnikov and the prosecution appealed. Unlike at the District Court, prosecutors are no longer seeking convictions on the grounds that the defendants acted as part of an international organised crime group.

The appeal proceedings are scheduled to last for more than 20 days. Melnikov is due to be heard in September, and the hearings will continue until November.

Special prosecutor Petri Rautio is relying heavily on tax inspection reports. Airiston Helmi was subject to tax inspections in 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019. Prosecutors have around 400 written pieces of evidence, most of which are the same as those presented at the District Court.

Rautio said the charges are based on tax inspectors’ findings concerning undeclared wage payments and the claim that the company did not have the business purpose it reported. Prosecutors estimate that the alleged undeclared wages avoided about 1.2 million euros in taxes.

They are also seeking to prove the charge involving employee pension insurance contributions, which the District Court previously rejected. The Finnish Tax Administration, one of the claimants, supports the prosecutors’ demands.

Melnikov’s defence lawyer, Kai Kotiranta, said he was surprised by the prosecution’s continued references to disguising the company’s activities. He said the prosecution’s position remained confused and general, and maintained that the starting point was that the company had operated in accordance with laws and norms.