OREANDA-NEWS. November 21, 2014. Estonian and Finnish authorities have uncovered a money-laundering operation where crime syndicates in both nations tried to legalize an estimated 6.8 million euros through various companies in Estonia.

“The Estonian and Finnish criminal cases are extraordinary due to the high number of suspects, volumes and the number of places where investigations have been conducted simultaneously,” said Janek Maasik, the head of economic crime department at the Estonian Central Criminal Police.

Seven men and one woman have been accused of running the operation, which ran from 2012 until a few months ago.

According to initial information, the case involves close to 90 businesses, mostly registered to work in construction, which produced fictitious invoices. Since at least a number of those businesses are active, the Tax Board has also been included in the investigation.

Property and assets worth 500,000 euros have been seized, including cash, bank accounts and motorbikes.