Helsinki Distict Court has ordered former chairman of the board of the Finnish Youth Foundation Perttu Nousiainen to pay nearly €8 million in damages to the foundation after it found he approved property transactions that resulted in substantial financial losses for his former employer.
The transactions were agreed in breach of the statutes of the Youth Foundation's subsidiary companies and Nousiainen's duty of care under the Companies Act, the court said.
Nousiainen was ordered to pay the money in absentia, as he did not participate in the case nor defend himself.
Perttu Nousiainen, a former chairman of the Centre Party's youth wing and municipal politician, was a member or chairman of the board of the Finnish Youth Foundation from 2010 to 2018. He was fired from his position in 2018 after criminal allegations were made against him.
According to Yle's investigative journalism programme MOT , Nousiainen's current whereabouts are unknown. He is suspected of several offences in an ongoing, wide-ranging police investigation into the activities of the former management of the Finnish Youth Foundation and its business dealings.
Foundation sues its former bosses
The Centre Party-affiliated Finnish Youth Foundation has filed numerous lawsuits and criminal cases against its former caretakers after new management took over in 2018.
Story continues after photo.
While the foundation was successful in claiming damages against Nousiainen, it has a similar action pending against other former board members in connection with the same property deal. The court has not yet ruled in their case.
If found to have caused material harm to the Finnish Youth Foundation by the court, they will become jointly-liable for millions of euros in damages.
"The court's decision shows that the Finnish Youth Foundation is strongly committed to thoroughly investigate the misconduct at the foundation and to claim compensation for the losses incurred by the foundation," Jari Laine, the foundation's current chairman said.
However, it is unlikely that the Finnish Youth Foundation will ever receive compensation. Nousiainen already has debts of several hundred thousand euros in foreclosure.
Suspicious property deals in Lahti
The majority of the damages, more than €7 million, relate to property deals concluded by the Finnish Youth Foundation's management in Lahti in 2014.
The foundation bought an apartment building at Hämeenkatu 24 from construction company Salpausselän Rakentajat in Lahti for 8 040,000 euros. However, according to external valuations commissioned by the new management of the Finnish Youth Foundation a few years later, the true value of the property was significantly lower, at roughly 1.7-2.6 million euros.
In 2019, the foundation sold the dilapidated building at a loss of around 7 million euros.
Story continues after photo.
The Youth Foundation entered into several other projects with the Lahti-based construction firm at around the same time. Helsinki police have said they suspect significant bribes were paid to Perttu Nousiainen and former CEO of the Youth Foundation, Aki Haaro.
Haaro resigned as CEO in 2018 amid a police investigation into transfers of hundreds of thousands of euros from an Estonian shell company to businesses owned by Haaro and ex-chairman Nousiainen.
In 2018 it was reported that police suspected the building firm’s managers of aggravated tax fraud and other offences.
In early August, local paper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat reported that Mika Wilenius, the former owner of Salpausselän Rakentajat and a suspect in the wide-ranging, Finnish Youth Foundation-linked criminal investigation, had died.