Helsinki (18.05.2010 - Juhani Artto) Timo Nyberg, the CEO of Sevirita Oy, and his Chinese wife are accused of charging huge recruitment fees from almost 60 Chinese cleaners who moved to Finland some time ago for work. The couple are also being charged with collecting fees for language training the cleaners did not receive.
A district court in Helsinki will hear the case in the coming autumn. If the accused are found guilty, they will have to pay hefty compensation to the Chinese cleaners. And compensation, in this case, could amount to several hundreds of thousands of euros. The lawyer for the cleaners has asked the court to order the confiscation of property belonging to the accused to the tune of over EUR700,000.
Most of the almost 60 Chinese cleaners still live and work in Finland. Some have returned to China.
Police have also questioned representatives of the Finnish cleaning company SOL that used Sevirita's services in recruiting these Chinese cleaners. No evidence of SOL's involvement in these illegal arrangements and doubtful fee collection has been established and so SOL will not be among the accused in the Chinese cleaners' case.
Read more:
Who received the money? Chinese cleaners have paid huge recruitment fees to enter the Finnish labour market (17.08.2009)