Prison sentences in Uoti money laundering case

Court voted on verdicts

Ari Huhtamäki

Seppo Sairanen

Joni Soila

Kari Uoti

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The trial involving charges of money laundering, aimed at hiding assets of businessman Kari Uoti in connection with a bankruptcy, concluded on Friday, with seven of the ten defendants receiving prison sentences. The case focused on he transfer of funds from dealings with shares of the commercial bank Interbank more than ten years ago.
      Many of the defendants indicated that they would appeal the decision.
     
Uoti was sentenced to five months and ten days for aggravated dishonesty of a debtor. The court found that he had concealed large amounts of his property from his creditors.
      Uoti's sentence was relatively mild, because he had already been sentenced in two other cases involving financial crimes.
      The other sentences were for concealment. The harshest punishment - three years imprisonment - was handed down to Timo Lampila, who had acted on Uoti's behalf over a period of several years. Of his other assistants, Hannu Halme got a year and eight months, and Joni Soila, former editor-in-chief of the weekly entertainment magazine Katso, got a year and six months.
      Dr. Ari Huhtamäki, a law professor at the University of Lapland, who had been Uoti's legal adviser, was sentenced to a year and ten months, and was stripped of his post at the university.
     
Also convicted was Seppo Sairanen, the main owner of FIM Asset Management, who was given two years and two months for aggravated concealment. FIM broker Karri Toivonen got a year and eight months for the same act.
      Aggravating circumstances for Sairanen included his legal training, his special knowledge in finances, his responsible position in FIM, and the approval that he gave for shuffling Uoti's funds.
      FIM was sentenced to a company fine of EUR 100,000.
      In addition to the severity of the sentences, the case was exceptional, in that it was based on the votes of four lay members of the court. The two legal professionals on the panel would have acquitted many of the defendants.
      The disagreement was not over the validity of the evidence, but rather whether or not Kari Uoti would have had the right, in connection with his bankruptcy in 1997, not to disclose the fact that he was the beneficiary of several offshore companies that were acquired for the purpose of concealing assets.
     
Most of the prosecution's demands for compensatory damages were rejected by the court. Only Lampila and Soila were ordered to compensate the Uoti estate for the concealed property.
      Lampila was ordered to pay more than EUR 1.5 million, nearly a million Swiss francs, and 1.6 million US dollars with interest.
      Soila was ordered to contribute to the euro damages.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kari Uoti pleads not guilty at money laundering trial (10.1.2006)
  Police went all out in investigation of extensive Uoti money laundering case (9.12.2005)

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