This story was released today in Finnish, but I figured it could possible be more useful to start a discussion about this on this subreddit in particular. The story (in Finnish) can be found at: [https://yle.fi/a/74-20013847](https://yle.fi/a/74-20013847) ; the episode of MOT (in Finnish) can be found at: [https://areena.yle.fi/1-63858269](https://areena.yle.fi/1-63858269)

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To paraphrase the reporting: Sudanese man Abdelrazig Elimamilla wished to move to Finland as an entrepreneur. He found the company called Fintegra Consulting Group, with apparently close ties to accounting office Streamex Oy. According to him he was promised an easy path to residency by Fintegra and he spent all of his savings, 150 000€, on the process (including apparently buying the business, a small car repairs shop, and paying 12 000€ consulting firm). Unfortunately he did not receive an residence permit at which point the damage to his savings was already done. Soon after the company he bought stopped operating. The tax administration, according to the reporting, felt that the purchase might had been faked and that the individual from Fintegra who was in a leadership role in the company was a fake-owner. Apparently this company Fintegra has been taking part in founding a lot of now non-operational companies and has also advertised Finland abroad as some kind of a land of free flowing welfare benefits, with possibly more people spending their money while gaining nothing at all.

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I also have some peripheral experience with the immigration system. There are a lot more than just the companies mentioned in this piece targeting residence permits. Many of them have three groups of customers: gullible vulnerable people, such as in the reporting above, who spend all their savings while not necessarily getting anything; even more affluent who are assisted in “crafting” as real looking application as possible while potentially having no actual plans to practice the business just to receive a residence permit; and also sincere entrepreneurs with good business ideas who find these services and waste their money as well, as the services are quite honesty completely unnecessary for these individuals

By bringing this matter up here I merely wish to raise some awareness on these kinds of potentially predatory actors. Finland is a country with mostly well working public services (though I know the waiting times at Migri can be an arse), and relying on services such as these is unnecessary and risks getting yourself conned. The providers of these services are also obviously well known to the people on the field, and usage of these services has the potential downside of drawing more scrutiny on whatever application you may be making, be it sincere or not.

I would also be interested in hearing whether any of the members or visitors of this subreddit have actually used these kinds of services, and what your opinion on such services was; or what kind of opinions do you have about these kinds of companies.

3 comments

  1. There’s a saying that you can’t con an honest man. He must have known that buying a business he didn’t really think of running was to con Migri.

    Though, many countries migrant countries are rampant with corruption. Maybe he thought things are the same in Finland.

    Edit: Also, scam companies like this may buy bankrupt or inactive businesses for pennies and sell them with huge profit to people like in this story. Most likely the whole 150 000 € went to the scammers. Thouh, if the deal was fake to begin with like the administrators believe, there never was 150 000 €.

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