After Spending 3 Million Rupees on Employment, Nepali Woman Finds Herself Stranded in Finland

If things had gone as promised, Ganga’s life (name changed for protection) would look very different today. She would be working at a Nepali-owned restaurant in Helsinki, earning at least 2,000 euros a month, with her beloved minor son by her side.

After a lifetime of struggle and hardship, she might finally be exhaling a breath of relief, too.

But that’s not her reality. Instead, after borrowing heavily and spending nearly 3 million Nepali rupees (approximately 20,000 Euros) on dreams of good employment and a bright future for her son, Ganga finds herself stranded in Finland—betrayed, broke, and desperate.

For this story, Nepalilainen conducted two extensive interviews with Ganga and exchanged numerous messages with her. We reviewed several documentary evidence she provided, including her police complaint, work contract, residence permit application, Nepal government labor approval, proof of payments made in Nepal, screenshots of messages and emails from the restaurant owner, and a nearly 30-minute audio transcript of a conversation between the victim and the accused.

Different shades of deception

Ganga, who ran a small business and worked part-time in Kathmandu, was lured to Finland by a woman she had known for about eight years. The woman told her that her family owned a restaurant in Finland and promised a monthly salary of around 2,100 euros.

“I knew nothing about going abroad,” Ganga told Nepalilainen. “She kept telling me Finland was excellent, that my son’s future would be secure.”

“My son even called her ‘big mother’ and loved her. I never imagined she could do something like this,” she said.

“I thought that amount of money must really be required, that it had to be paid somewhere. Students also pay money to go abroad, so I thought it must be the same. Once she said my son’s future would be good, I forgot everything else,” she explained.

Ganga is a single mother who has raised her minor son alone through immense hardship. Throughout our conversation, she repeatedly mentioned the pain of being away from him and the stress of worrying about his future.

She left her son in her sister’s care and arrived in Finland about three months ago.

The accused promised Ganga a monthly salary of approximately 2,100 euros and assured her they would bring her son to Finland after some time. They demanded about 2.5 million Nepali rupees in cash for visa processing and other expenses.

Including the costs of preparing visa documents, tickets, shopping, and other expenses, Ganga estimates she spent around 3 million rupees total.

“I had a small business—I sold that too. I borrowed the rest of the money,” she said. “Everything I had is gone. I’m ruined.”

Money to Strangers’ Accounts, No Work Upon Arrival

The accused began taking money from Ganga early this year, instructing her to transfer most of it not to their own accounts but to other people’s bank accounts.

In January alone, she transferred approximately 1.8 million rupees to two different people’s bank accounts in Nepal. She also sent several lakhs directly to one of the accused women’s accounts. Bank transaction records provided to Nepalilainen clearly confirm her claims.

Despite arriving in Finland with countless dreams, she was devastated when she realised that the promised work did not even exist.

“The restaurant where I was supposed to work had already been sold before I even arrived,” she said.

Email Hacking and Evidence Destruction

According to Ganga, the mother-daughter duo first made various excuses. Later, they accessed her personal email without permission and applied for jobs at other companies using her name.

Her police complaint states that the accused later deleted her email account entirely to destroy evidence.

For about 20 days after arriving in Finland, they continued to string her along with promises of work. When Ganga realised she’d been deceived and demanded her money back, she was instead threatened with deportation to Nepal and false legal cases. Later, when she threatened to go to the police, the accused returned 2,800 euros.

However, Ganga says the accused are now calling this 2,800 euros “one and a half months’ salary” and refusing to return the rest. Ganga insists she never worked at all and that the money was a partial refund of what she paid in Nepal.

The Fake Employment Trail

An email Ganga provided to Nepalilainen describes the amount as her salary and states that her work contract with the company has been terminated. Even a salary slip was created and sent to her. Yet according to Ganga, she didn’t work there for even a single day.

The company where Ganga was supposedly offered employment was registered in Finland about two years ago. The ownership records show two Nepali names were updated as owners last May—meaning they arranged her work visa just months after buying the company.

The company appears to have operated at a loss of about 15,000 euros last year. Though run by Nepalis, the restaurant serves cuisine other than typical Nepali food.

However, Ganga says the company has since been sold again. This is confirmed by conversations between the victim and the accused, though the new owner’s information hasn’t yet been updated in the company registry system—likely because the sale was recent.

In an audio transcript Ganga provided to Nepalilainen, the accused tells her they will “refund the money if she resigns from the company and returns to Nepal.”

In the recording, one of the accused says “we are not fraudsters” and claims they will “sell their car if necessary to return the money.” However, reading the conversation makes it clear that they collected the 2.5 million rupees from Ganga through deception and various excuses.

In the conversation, Ganga repeatedly asks, “Why didn’t you just ask directly for the money? Why did you deceive me by saying this much is needed for this, that much for that?”

“Is 3 million rupees a small amount? I sold my land, sold my business, lost everything to come here. How can you steal money from an innocent child like this?” Ganga demands.

When Ganga asks how they could take so much money from her, the accused responds simply: “Everyone takes it.”

Ganga’s police complaint also mentions that when she demanded her money back, one of the two accused threatened to “have her deported to Nepal” and “file cases against her in Finland.”

When Ganga said she was prepared to go to the police herself, the accused panicked and came to meet her.

Though they initially promised to return the money, they later sent an email stating they had “paid her for work done at their company and no other transaction remains”—after which Ganga went to the police.

A person Ganga knew from Finnish language courses in Nepal advised her on how to proceed with the legal process in Finland. He also provided contacts for some Nepalis living in Helsinki.

In her complaint, she has demanded the return of her trapped money and action against those who duped her. According to Ganga, she wrote the complaint with her sister’s help.

“I don’t know that much English. I had a lawyer’s contact, too, but where would I get money to pay a lawyer? My sister helped write the complaint,” she said.

A Growing Pattern of Exploitation

Cases of establishing companies to bring people to Finland and then abandoning them have been increasing recently. Last month, an incident came to light in Finland’s Kajaani region where dozens of Nepalis were brought to work in forests and then abandoned. Five people are currently in police custody in that case.

A few days ago, another case was exposed involving a fake cleaning company that defrauded dozens of foreigners. Five people are also detained in that case.