National Coalition Party and candidates to return donations from Nova Group

Nova contributed heavily to Sauli Niinistö presidential campaign

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The National Coalition Party decided on Wednesday to return part of the money that it received from the Kehittyvien maakuntien Suomi (KMS) coalition. The party has calculated what proportion of the KMS donations had come from the Nova Group real estate development company, and to pay that amount into the bankrupt estate of the Nova Group. The party agreed on the matter with Pekka Kokko, who is handling aftermath of the the Nova Group bankruptcy.
     The Nova Group was a major contributor to KMS, and its mathematical share of KMS support to the election campaigns of Parliamentary candidates of the National Coalition Party is EUR 34,920 and for the party itself, it amounted to EUR 11,000.
     
“A powerful moral tone has entered the debate. This support has no longer felt right. It has felt really wrong”, said Party Secretary Taru Tujunen to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday evening.
     According to Tujunen, the party will refund the money in a single payment and bill the candidates separately for their shares.
     The decision to pay back the money was made at a joint meeting of the party’s Parliamentary group and ministerial group.
     
It also came out on Wednesday that the Speaker of Parliament, Sauli Niinistö (Nat. Coalition Party), had paid back EUR 3,700 of Parliamentary election support that he had received from KMS to the Nova Group bankrupt estate. Niinistö had received EUR 10,000 from KMS, and Nova Group accounted for about 36 per cent of the funds donated by KMS.
     However, Niinistö has not paid back any of Nova Group donations to his 2006 presidential campaign. Helsingin Sanomat has learned that Niinistö received EUR 10,000 in direct support in the 2006 Presidential elections. Nova also paid between EUR 25,000 and 30,000 in election advertising costs. Nova group director Arto Merisalo disclosed the sums involved to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.
     Niinistö did not recognise the numbers on Wednesday evening. “Unfortunately, the candidate in Presidential elections is not able to focus on these matters”, he said.
     A news broadcast on the commercial TV channel Nelonen reported that businessman Ahti Vilppula gave a donation of EUR 50,000 to Niinistö’s presidential campaign, and EUR 25,000 to that of the Centre Party’s Matti Vanhanen.
     The figures do not appear in Niinistö’s election campaign funding report, which mentions several other companies as contributors. Nova is also not in the report.
     
National Coalition Party MP Marja Tiura, who has been in the news in recent days over campaign donations that she received from Nova Group and KMS, commented on the recent days’ events in Parliament.
     She denied the suggestion that she had not been sufficiently forthcoming in her statement from the previous day. She said that the reason was that it was only since then that she found out who had actually paid for a plane ticket supplied to her in 2007 by Nova Group.
     “Finding Tutankhamon’s grave would probably be easier” than clarifying the internal financial traffic in Nova Group. The payer turned out to be the architectural company VG-Group.
     
Tiura says that if she had known in 2006 what she knows now, she would not have accepted any money from KMS. “It was my own stupidity”, she said.
     She added that she is willing to return the portion of the KMS money that would have come from the Nova .

More on this subject:
 Marja Tiura’s husband to step down from top position at YLE

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)
  Centre Party silent about major contributor (12.6.2009)
  Tapani Yli-Saunamäki: “Treasure chest” handed out money and paid campaign bills (20.5.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat