NAVI's Aleksib accused of tax fraud in Finland

According to a report by Finnish news outlet iltalehti.fi, NAVI’s in-game leader Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen has been accused of aggravated tax fraud.

The fraud in question allegedly occurred between May 19 and September 22, 2020, and the report claims Aleksib "says that the matter is related to income from competitive gaming (translated)." At the time, Aleksib had been competing for OG.

While it’s unclear how the case will play out in Finnish court this April, there have been similar instances involving Counter-Strike pros in the past. Just last year, an unnamed retired player from Denmark was found to have failed to report over $345,000 in prize earnings between 2014 and 2020. He was sentenced to one year of suspended prison time, two years of probation, and 200 hours of community service.

In 2020, popular player Robin "flusha" Rönnquist was also convicted of tax evasion in Sweden after failing to report over $100,000 of prize money, but he avoided any jail time for the offense.