Finnish prosecutors want a four-month suspended prison sentence for NAVI’s in-game leader on a charge of aggravated tax fraud. Aleksib admits that more than €53,000 he received from Valve was never declared, but denies that he acted intentionally.
Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen is on trial in Finland over income he received from Valve Corporation. The charge was read out in the District Court of Eastern Uusimaa on Friday, and the prosecutor is seeking four months of suspended imprisonment for aggravated tax fraud, according to Iltalehti.
The 29-year-old is the in-game leader of NAVI. He has not been convicted, and the court will rule at a later date.
What the prosecution says
According to the charge, as reported by Iltalehti:
- Aleksib did not return his pre-filled tax return for 2019 and did not report the payments from Valve that were missing from it.
- The undeclared taxable income amounted to more than €53,000. As a result, his income tax was assessed more than €28,000 too low.
- The alleged offence is dated 19 May to 22 September 2020 and took place in Vantaa.
- The prosecutor argues that Aleksib sought considerable financial gain, and that the act should therefore be considered aggravated when assessed as a whole.
- The sentence sought is four months of suspended imprisonment.
The two dates explain why reports of the case have given different years. The income belongs to the 2019 tax year, while the alleged offence itself falls in 2020.
What the defence says
Aleksib does not dispute the core facts, but he rejects the prosecution’s view of why it happened.
- He admits that he did not report the more than €53,000 to the Finnish Tax Administration.
- He denies that it was intentional and denies that he sought financial gain.
- According to the defence, the undeclared income came from sales of stickers in Counter-Strike.
- The defence says that Aleksib, who was 22 at the time, did not understand that this kind of income counts as taxable earned income.
- Tax had been withheld in advance from his regular salary, so he believed his taxes had already been taken care of, according to the defence.
What happens next
- The District Court of Eastern Uusimaa will give its judgment later. Iltalehti’s report does not give a date.
- In Finland, aggravated tax fraud carries a sentence of four months to four years in prison. The prosecutor’s request is at the bottom of that scale.
- A suspended sentence is not served in prison as long as the conditions of the probationary period set by the court are met.
- The court will decide both whether the act was intentional and whether it was aggravated. The defence disputes both.
The case first became public in March, when Iltalehti reported that the charge was heading to the district court.
How sticker money reaches players
Valve releases team and player signature stickers for every Major, and the revenue from Major items is shared with the participating organisations and players. Players earn from sales of their own signature stickers. In 2022, Valve said that Major items had raised more than $70 million for organisations, teams and players over the previous 12 months.
The sums can be large. dexter said that much of his best-paid year came from sticker money from the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023. Valve has also adjusted the model, for example with a ranked sticker series for the Cologne Major.
Aleksib’s biggest Major runs before the period in question came with ENCE. The Finnish team reached the final of IEM Katowice 2019, where they lost to Astralis. He later became the first Finnish player to win a Major, when NAVI won the PGL Major Copenhagen in March 2024.
NAVI’s schedule
Aleksib has continued to lead NAVI while the case has been pending. The team are in the field for PGL Masters Bucharest from 24 to 31 October and have also registered for HyperX RETAKE in Lisbon as they chase an invite to the PGL Major Singapore.
