Jarmo Piironen/Getty Images

Back in September, Google announced plans to invest €13 billion ($14.6 billion USD) in Finland — the biggest single investment it has ever made in Europe. Now, less than two months later, Google is in trouble with Finnish regulators and police after it cleared an estimated 250,000 trees near Muhos for one of its new data centers. According to reports on the issue, Google acted without first finishing the environmental impact assessments that Finnish law requires.

The forest Google cleared at Muhos was about 330 hectares (815 acres) and the company reportedly took the topsoil with it, so all that's really left there now is mud. Conservationists accused Google of clearing it illegally, and the Finnish Licensing and Supervisory Agency (LVV) ordered Google's subsidiary to stop the work at Muhos and at a second site in Kajaani until those assessments are finished. The Oulu Police Department then opened a preliminary investigation into the Muhos site on October 29.…