WinCapita, previously WinClub and GiiClub, was a Finnish Internet-based Ponzi scheme that advertised itself as a private investment club engaged in currency trading.
[3] In December 2011, the District Court of Vantaa found the chief suspect Hannu Kailajärvi guilty of aggravated fraud, and sentenced him to four years in prison.
[4] In February 2013, the Court of Appeal of Helsinki found him guilty of aggravated fraud and a money collection offence, and increased his prison sentence to five years.
[6] As a proof of concept for its members it offered an automatic "signal clock" software which was said to predict good times to buy or sell a currency.
The few lucky ones on the top of the pyramid who got initially paid told success stories to others, spreading trust to the club.
Kailajärvi was believed to have lived at least half a year in the cottage, telling his neighbours that he was renovating the house for a famous Finnish opera singer.
In March 2009 the biggest Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published an article[15] about the wild-running conspiracy theories surrounding WinCapita.
The trial against the chief suspect Hannu Kailajärvi and his female associate began in February 2011 in the District Court of Vantaa.
The prosecutor sought a minimum of five years in prison for Kailajärvi and forfeiting about six million euros to the state as criminal proceeds.
[19][20] A total of five people are suspected of involvement in the central organization of the scheme, but three of them remain at large, and could face court proceedings later.
The Court of Appeals of Eastern Finland decided (voting 2-1) that because part of the business conducted was legal, the profits cannot inherently be proceeds of crime.