Investigators have characterized the scandal as perhaps the largest financial fraud in history.

Officials said they did not immediately pursue more cases because they wanted their limited number of investigators to concentrate on the largest frauds.

A variety of complex factors created the conditions and culture in which a series of large corporate frauds occurred between 2000-2002.

We have certainly seen some large and spectacular frauds uncovered recently, although they were not all in financial institutions.

"The work that we have done thus far, I believe, would have been sufficient to uncover any large fraud that existed there."

The current investigation involves what is reported to be the largest fraud in banking history.

He said the case was believed to be the largest fraud ever uncovered involving postage meters.

It would be considered one of the largest frauds in US history.

"I would be very, very surprised if we uncovered a very large fraud at this stage," he said.

The operation collected about 100 million euros from more than 10,000 investors, probably the largest fraud in the Finnish history.