The non-profit organisation, the Riihi Foundation, has close ties to the opposition Social Democratic Party.
On Wednesday, the court upheld 17 embezzlement charges and one charge of aggravated subsidy fraud against Toivo J. Kanninen. He was president of the foundation in the late 1990s, when it handed out financing for 12 blocks of state-subsidized flats for the poor in the Oulu region.
Kanninen has denied all charges.
Since last autumn, police have been investigating financial irregularities at the Finnish Youth Foundation, a low-income housing group with close links to the Centre Party.