“Benevolent narcissist” Arto Merisalo planning a new business

Campaign financier sees himself as scapegoat in election funding furore

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By Matti Mielonen
     
      The Nova Group’s Arto Merisalo, 44, who made headlines in connection with the controversy over election funding, sharply divides opinion in the business community.
      In the view of a former business partner, Merisalo occasionally appeared to be a “psychopath” with a frighteningly explosive temper, who should have a restraining order placed on him.
      Another businessman friend characterises him like this: “He is a well-meaning narcissist, who made the mistake of going berry-picking with powerful men. They took away the whole basket.”
      The friend places the blame for the election funding uproar on people other than Merisalo. As he sees it, Merisalo was a “convenient dupe” in Nova Group, steered from behind the scenes by much bigger boys than the election funding lobbyist Tapani Yli-Saunamäki.
     
What is certain is that as a result of the tailspin of election campaign donor Nova Group, Merisalo is now facing bankruptcy proceedings for a third time, and that he has, in the past, been sentenced to both suspended, and non-suspended prison terms.
      The key question in the election funding furore is, what Merisalo and Nova were expecting to get in return for the massive amounts of money they put into the election campaigns. Merisalo is not offering a clear answer.
      “Nobody wanted a quid pro quo from the politicians. Civil servants deal with town plans and properties. Without them, nothing would happen. Politicians merely confuse issues. If we were looking for anything, it would have been entrepreneur-friendly politics, and that is something to be expected from the values of the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party”, Merisalo says.
      Merisalo claims that Yli-Saunamäki enticed him to back politicians. Naturally he is interested in politics, and he has been asked to join in, but after all, he was more of a businessman. In his own view, Merisalo is a scapegoat in the whole affair.
     
The controversial businessman arrives for the interview in a humble Toyota - not a BMW. He does not want to stand out in the crowd.
      Things used to be different. In his home community of Ruovesi, people remember the son of the owner of the sawmill who, as a schoolboy, would earn money collecting recyclable paper.
      At the time of the “casino economy” of the 1980s Merisalo would bring money from the bank in a plastic bag and light a cigar with a 500-markka banknote. The drivers of his fancy cars were local rogue characters.
      This was the time of the SYK-yhtiöt, when the Tampere-based Merisalo and his business partners would lose millions in complicated real estate deals.
     
Merisalo says that money has no meaning for him. He also says that he doesn’t actually have much of it. On Thursday, the businessman had EUR 400 on his bank account. He lives in a rental apartment, and his car is owned by the finance company.
      He can swear on the Bible that all of this is true. It is said that he has a golden Bible that he takes with him on business trips.
      “That’s not true.”
     
He clearly remembers the day that he became a Christian - February 1st, 1988.
      The voice is that of a Pentecostal preacher.
      “As a charismatic speaker, Arto is the best in the country. He is on the telephone all the time. During the next call he says how the previous speaker agreed with him. Even the Prime Minister immediately agreed with him. He believes what he says himself.”
     
Politicians were happy to accept Merisalo’s hospitality and election funds, even though just ten days before the Parliamentary elections of 2007 Merisalo was handed down a suspended sentence for bankruptcy irregularities from a decade earlier.
      Merisalo ran a furniture business while serving a suspended sentence, having first received a non-suspended prison sentence in the-1990s over the chaotic bankruptcy of SYK. The management of the Iisalmi Osuuspankki bank once granted loans to Merisalo and his partners in the millions, when the applicants had chauffeurs and neat suits. However, Merisalo’s charisma is more than just a pleasant voice and dapper appearance.
      “Arto is skillful in creating visions. When we were holding talks with a big businessman, Arto explained extensively, how a project worth 100 million was coming”, says a former business partner. In fact, the projects were always just “coming”.
     
The big businessman points out that Merisalo knows the real estate business. “When one friend told about a certain building in a certain city, Merisalo knew everything about the building, except that it had been repainted a couple of months earlier. I don’t know if there is anyone else who can do the same without going through files. He has cities inside his head.”
      The big businessman points out that Merisalo has worked together with all of Finland’s banks, retail chains, and insurance companies.
      “He has been extensively involved. There is no point in anyone hiding away, claiming that he doesn’t know the man.”
     
Merisalo’s telephone rings repeatedly during the interview. Ben Zyskowicz of the National Coalition Party wants to check on how much support Nova Group gave to the party during the Presidential campaign. During the hour Merisalo drops names of friends, such as businessman Peter Fryckman, singer Rainer Friman, and another singer Tapani Kansa, whose car Merisalo drove while Kansa’s driving licence was suspended.
      “Merisalo has plenty of friends, but if you go ask any of them, they might have a different opinion”, says a former business partner. Zyskowicz emphasises that he is an “acquaintance”.
      Merisalo quotes Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who said that in order to be happy, a person needs to have at least one good friend. For Merisalo, that one person is his ex wife.
     
The aristocratic Marshal Mannerheim is Merisalo’s role model. In spite of modelling himself after a nobleman, Merisalo sometimes behaves in a very unrefined manner, bringing the salesperson of a hamburger bar to tears if there is onion in the bun.
      During his imprisonment over the Nova Group bankruptcy, he read two war books by Reino Lehväslaiho, and a historical book by Juhani Suomi. He also had time to think about what his next business might be.
      A businessman friend bets that in exactly a year, Arto Merisalo will have “some dizzying project going”.
      “Man was created to do things”, Merisalo says.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 19.9.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Records of Nova Group bankruptcy estate show reckless spending (10.9.2009)
  Nova Real Estate Development CEO Arto Merisalo remanded in custody (20.8.2009)
  Tapani Yli-Saunamäki: “Treasure chest” handed out money and paid campaign bills (20.5.2008)
  Centre Party to pay back all Nova donations (18.9.2009)
  National Coalition Party and candidates to return donations from Nova Group (17.9.2009)

MATTI MIELONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
matti.mielonen@hs.fi