Govt to probe money laundering by Trafigura

Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä on Monday said that the government was planning to investigate the allegations of money laundering of millions of euros through tax havens by Trafigura, a minority shareholder of the state-owned mining company Terrafame.

The minister made the remarks following a number of reports on suspected money laundering by Trafigura being filed in the USA, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

"These kinds of suspicions are extremely unfortunate. They should not be part of business culture," the Yle report quoted Lintilä as saying during a visit to Oulu in the afternoon.

The issue of money laundering came into light from a leak of confidential documents to US news site Buzzfeed, indicating that big banks and the international financial system were involved in money laundering across the world.

The minister said the government has launched an investigation into Trafigura, a company based in Singapore.

Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean-domiciled multinational commodity trading company founded in 1993 that trades in base metals and energy.

The company became an investor in Terrafame when it snapped up a 30-per cent stake in the then-beleaguered mining firm in 2017.

The Finnish government is the majority shareholder of the mining company with 70 per cent ownership.

Meanwhile, the major partner of Terrafame, Finnish Minerals Group, which represents the Finnish state, said that the new suspicions of corruption swirling around the company will not affect the mine’s operations, said the Yle report.

"This is not related to Terrafame per se. When Trafigura became an owner in 2017, the related issues and tax considerations were carefully investigated. Based on the reporting by Yle so far, this entire manner has nothing to do with Terrafame’s operations in Finland," Finnish Mineral Group CEO Matti Hietanen told the Yle.