This investigation was prepared in partnership with the Finnish TV channel Yle, the Latvian publication Re:Baltica, and the Lithuanian media outlet 15min.lt, with the support of activist group CyberPartisans.

This investigation began with a question that Finnish journalist Jyri Hänninen asked himself 10 years ago: "This is a Finnish NGO. It is supposed to provide affordable housing to Finnish youth. Why do they have a company in Estonia?" 

Media articles, local authorities, and later law enforcement officers wondered the same. One of the largest ever investigations into corruption practices in Finland was initiated.

What was the BIC interest behind it? After all, one of the main figures in this case ended up not in court but in Minsk. A man with an arrest warrant from Europol and a so-called Interpol red notice has fled from justice to the Belarusian capital.

Happy and corrupt

Finland is inhabited by the happiest people in the world, according to the World Happiness Report, and has the second-lowest level of corruption after Denmark. It also ranks second among almost 150 countries in terms of the scale of state social assistance for the population. The authorities attach particular importance to young people. The Ministry of Education and Culture financially supports about a hundred national youth organisations. Among them is the Youth Foundation (Nuorisosäätiö). Its activities were at the centre of a corruption case, the traces of which led to Minsk.

Youth Foundation’s history began in the 1960s. It aims to support young men and women on their path to independent living. The Foundation provides affordable rental housing, mainly in Helsinki. Jyri Hänninen, a journalist for the national Finnish broadcaster Yle, told BIC this is a unique organisation. It owns thousands of apartments, home to about 5,000 young Finns.

The corruption case broke out in 2016. In 2015, the Foundation started investing in luxury real estate abroad. Court documents show it purchased real estate at inflated prices, and those involved in the scheme could pocket the difference. [*]

“A lot of money was withdrawn from the Youth Foundation. And most of it went to Estonia,” said reporter Jyri Hänninen.

The Foundation purchased luxury apartments in the upscale Pirita Beach area of Tallinn. According to Hänninen, the money was borrowed from banks, pledging property owned by the Foundation. He said the Foundation loaned out some of this money, including 12.1 million euros to the Estonian company Pirita Holding in 2015. In 2015. With this money, Pirita Holding purchased a plot of land in Tallinn from its parent company, Brave Capital. In 2018, Brave Capital sold Pirita Holding to the Youth Foundation for 5 million euros. The land thus became the Foundation's property. [*]

Following a series of similar financial abuses, only about 1.5 million euros of the 12.1 million euro loan issued by Brave Capital was returned to the Youth Foundation's budget. The Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland, which partially funded the organisation's activities, ordered it to stop when it discovered these investments. 

Those losses were huge by Finland’s standards, says Hänninen: “You need to understand that there is not that much corruption in Finland, and we don't have these corruption schemes on this level.”

New management found the Foundation on the verge of bankruptcy, although its assets were estimated at 50 million euros by 2018.

“It is difficult to describe with words the chaos the Foundation was in at that moment. The bills were not being paid. At that time, there were 4,200 apartments. The heating and electricity were being turned off, and only a few million euros remained in the account. The total debt and other financial obligations amounted to nearly €300 million euros," the organisation's new chairman Jari Laine told the BIC.

People involved in the corruption case were investigated and received prison terms. But one of the key participants, a board member of the Estonian company Brave Capital, managed to avoid trial. 

Shelter from justice

Arto Kalevi Autio is a Finnish national against whom the new management of the Youth Foundation has lodged financial claims exceeding 30 million euros. [*] He has lived in Minsk since 2021. He first visited Belarus in 2012. Thanks to data obtained by CyberPartisans, we know that, before moving, he crossed the Belarusian border 80 times.

In Belarus, Autio found not only refuge from European justice. A native of Stoubtsy District, Krystsina Bazyleva, has been his companion on trips to Lithuania since 2018. In 2020, she became his wife. The newlyweds lived in a 74 square meter apartment on Kalvaryiskaya Street in Minsk at least until 2023. [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*]

In 2018, Autio registered OOO Amplion Trust in Minsk, and Krystsina holds the position of deputy director.  [*] [*] [*] The enterprise isn’t exactly a success. In 2021 and 2022, losses amounted to 43,000 Belarusian rubles (more than $16,600). In addition, in 2022 and 2023, the Ministry of Taxes and Duties recorded Amplion Trust's debt to the budget. According to a Belarusian court, Amplion Trust owes Minsk-based auditor OOO Baker Tilly Bel more than 5,000 rubles (more than $2,000).

The BIC discovered that Krystsina Bazyleva was a member of the board of several companies registered in Latvia, including Amplion Trust, a namesake of the Belarusian Amplion Trust. The owners list of another Latvia company — Iskra Trust — features Krystsina Bazyleva. 

Since 2021, Krystsina Autio has been registered with a Latvian social security number. Sources close to Latvia security services told our colleagues at Re:Baltica that in September 2020 she received a Latvian residence permit, which can be issued to officials of companies registered in Latvia’s business register. Now all known Latvian assets of Krystsina Bazyleva (Autio) have either changed hands or been liquidated.

We tried to reach Krystsina by phone, but phone numbers provided by the CyberPartisans were not available. The BIC journalists also sent her a written request, but we have not yet received a response.

Lock, stock and a silenced pistol

Another woman connected to Arto Autio’s business is his daughter, Emma Olivia Autio. While in Belarus, her father transferred ownership of the Latvian Amplion Trust to her after Latvian authorities became concerned about the company's activities. Re:Baltica journalist Sanita Jemberga described one case: 

“When he (Autio) bough the building, very quickly one of the seeling collapsed. There were around thirty flats and sixty people, and they all have to move out, because the building was deemed to be dangerous to the health. <...> So, basically you make the building inhabitable, either by purpose or by very lucky change. You get the people out, you wait for a while and you build. Since they have a licence to build, it’s most likely going to be residential building and the prices go up."

According to Jermberga, in 2019 alone Autio purchased 14 real estate properties in the Latvian capital of Riga worth nearly 12 million euros. In addition, 15min.lt journalists counted sixteen of his companies in Lithuania: 15 are branches of Estonian companies, and one is of British origin. According to 15min.lt journalists, these companies do not submit financial statements.

BIC tried but was unable to reach Autio’s daughter, to whom he transferred most of his Baltic assets. 

Another activity of Autio that has attracted the attention of European law enforcement is gambling. In 2019, he lost to poker ace Patrik Antonius at a tournament in Estonia. It wasn’t the first time. In total, Autio left about 6 million euros in Estonia casinos between 2015 and 2019. He paid with bank cards belonging to his companies and cash withdrawn from their accounts. 

This raised concerns among Estonian tax officials. In the spring of 2023, Autio was convicted of tax evasion and illegal possession of a weapon: a pistol with a silencer. The tax office demanded the recovery of almost 2 million euros from him. He took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to most of the charges, which helped him reduce the amount of tax payments by about 90 percent. His 32-month jail sentence was suspended on the condition that he not be implicated in any more wrongdoing during that time. [*]

Autio was engaged in this trial via video link. According to journalists from the Estonia publication Delovye Vedomosti, he said it was difficult for him to come to Estonia because he has been living in Belarus for quite a while.

Side by side with…

The choice of Belarus as a refuge for Arto Autio from charges for several serious crimes does not seem accidental. Belarus has not signed a bilateral treaty with Finland on criminal extradition. But this year, Autio will be able to return freely to Finland because a 10-year limitations statute will have expired:

“The validity period of the suspicions of crimes related to the Youth Foundation, which are being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation (of Finland), expires in December 2025,” the agency told the BIC.

We tried to talk to Autio but were unable to reach him.

Uladzimir Zhyhar, a representative of BelPol, an organization created by former employees of Belarus law enforcement agencies, explains why Belarus officials must know about Autio: 

“His passport is marked upon arrival at the border, after which his movements are tracked, and eventually, individuals in civilian clothing approach him and invite him for a conversation. Obviously, the person cannot refuse... And they offer him, let’s say, mutually beneficial cooperation. He can be on the territory of Belarus, he is not bothered by security forces, and he, for example, is engaged in investing, helps find some loopholes to circumvent sanctions.”

Zhyhar summed up the benefits Belarusian authorities see in foreigners on the run from the law. Perhaps the most well-known among them is the former President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. In 2010, he tried to suppress protests in the country. When he failed, he fled to Belarus, where he was placed under Aleksandr Lukashenko’s personal protection. 

There have also been fighters from the Ukrainian Berkut unit — possible participants in the 2014 shooting of the Maidan protesters. During the crackdown on 2020 protests in Belarus, they wore Belarusian riot police epaulettes. 

The latest striking example is the arrival of fighters from Yevgeny Prigozhin's Russian private military company Wagner in Belarus following a failed June 2023 uprising in Russia. These Wagner Group troops consisted of former convicts from Russian prisons. It remains unknown how many of them are still in Belarus. We discussed the Wagner Group's victories and defeats in this two-part analytical article.