Charges Set to Expire for Finnish Fraud Case Fugitive, Police Say

Authorities have issued an international arrest warrant through Interpol for Arto Kalevi Autio, who fled fraud charges in a major embezzlement case in Finland, media reported Tuesday.

But Autio could remain a free man if he is not arrested by the end of the year, according to information provided by Finnish police to the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC).

According to a 2021 criminal indictment filed in Helsinki District Court, Autio had alleged links to a scheme that diverted millions of euros from Finland’s Youth Foundation, an organization meant to provide affordable housing to young people. 

“The statute of limitations for the suspected crimes related to the Youth Foundation, and investigated by the National Criminal Police, expires in December 2025,” said Mika Tarkiainen, an inspector with the Finnish law enforcement agency.

The clarification from Finnish police was included in a new investigation by BIC, which reported on Autio along with Finnish broadcaster Yle, Latvia’s Re:Baltica, and Lithuania’s 15min.lt. 

Reporters were unable to reach Autio for comment. 

Autio has been on and off Europol’s most wanted list over the past few years. Tarkiainen told BIC he is currently absent from the list, because countries are allowed to include only two suspects at a time. 

“The European arrest warrant for Autio and the Interpol notice are still valid,” she added.

In 2023, as Finnish police were seeking his arrest, Autio was reported to be living in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. 

BIC and its media partners discovered that Autio founded a company in Belarus, where his wife is from. They also cited what appeared to be an official document provided by CyberPartisans, a group of Belarusian hacker activists, with records of Autio and his wife entering and leaving Belarus.

Belarusian authorities are likely aware of such high-profile foreign residents and may cooperate with them, according to Vladimir Zhigar of BYPol, an initiative by former security officials from the authoritarian country who defected and who now support the opposition.

“They offer mutually beneficial deals,” Zhigar told BIC. “He can stay, they don’t touch him, and he helps with investments.”

Over the years, Belarus has reportedly hosted other wanted individuals, including exiled Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev and former Ukrainian Berkut riot police officers, some of whom were implicated in the deadly crackdown on protesters during Ukraine’s 2013 Maidan uprising. 

Members of the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organization, also arrived in Belarus after a failed mutiny against the Kremlin led by its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to media reports.