Ahti Vilppula (born October 1959 or 17 July 1959) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

businessman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for th ...

. Born in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, Vilppula lives abroad but has financial interests in his native country. Vilppula started

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

between the West and the then

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. He moved to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

when the Soviet Union collapsed. Some companies with which Vilppula is involved have attracted the interest of financial regulators in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

.Election financiers, Did the ministers and others know whose money they were getting?
Helsingin Sanomat 18.5.2008 Together with Kai Mäkelä he has over the current decade been a major shareholder in companies such as

Saunalahti Saunalahti (previously Jippii) was a Finnish mobile phone operator and an internet service provider. History The company was founded in 1996 when three middle-sized internet operators merged. In 2009 the Helsinki Court of Appeal convicted J ...

Alma Media Alma Media Oyj is a Finland, Finnish media and digital service business company. Its best known products are ''Iltalehti'', ''Kauppalehti'', ''Talouselämä'', and . In addition to news services, the company's products provide information rela ...

, Talentum, and Ruukki Group. Vilppula sold a 10 percent stake in Ruukki Group in the Spring of 2008 to the Russian bank

VTB VTB Bank (; formerly known as ''Vneshtorgbank'', , lit. 'International Trade Bank') is a Russian majority state-owned bank headquartered in various federal districts of Russia; its legal address is registered in St. Petersburg; as of 2022 ...

Corporate positions

Ahti Vilppula was appointed as a director of Goldfields Holding Limited, a mining company, on 16 December 2019; he resigned on 13 May 2020. Vilppula was, however, also listed as a founding director of Goldfields Holding Limited in its initial filing.

Newspapers and banks buyout

In the 1980s, Vilppula with Kai Mäkelä bought large holdings in provincial newspapers. Vilppula bought with private investor Taito Tuunanen shares in the Union Bank of Finland (SYP, today after mergers

Nordea Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European financial services group operating in northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive m ...

) and insurance company

Sampo Bank Danske Bank A/S is a Denmark, Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail cus ...

. They sold a quarter of Sampo stock holdings with a considerable profit.

Kazakhstan

Vilppula was the Director of International Operations of the

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

-based

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

s and

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

giant Euro-Asian Group in 1997. In a few years, the company became a major name in the world of

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

and

ferrochromium Ferrochrome, or ferrochromium (FeCr) is a type of ferroalloy, that is, an alloy of chromium and iron, generally containing 50 to 70% chromium by weight. Ferrochrome is produced by electric arc carbothermic reduction of chromite. Most of the ...

markets. Vilppula has had close and cordial contacts with a group of billionaires known as the " Kazakhstan Trio," who are suspected by the Belgian authorities of

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

, counterfeit documents, and links to organized crime.

South Africa

Vilppula became a shareholder in the next port SA Chrome & Alloys in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 2001.

United States

Vilppula allegedly tried to buy the Pea Ridge Mine in

Sullivan, Missouri Sullivan is a city that straddles the border of Franklin and Crawford counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 6,906 at the 2020 census. History On January 28, 1839, 120 acres were conveyed by the U.S. Government to Garretso ...

, according to suit filings.

Elections

Vilppula owned the company Helsingin Mekaanikontalo and in 2007 paid €10,000 in parliamentary elections donations to the

National Coalition Party sv, Samlingspartiet , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Petteri Orpo , leader2_title = Deputy chairs , leader2_name = Antti Häkkänen Elina ValtonenAnna-Kaisa Ikonen , merger = Finnish Party, Young Finnis ...

(Eheän Suomen Tuki ry), and to Kymenlaakson Talousseura - in other words to ministers

Paula Lehtomäki Paula Lehtomäki (born 29 November 1972 in Kuhmo, Finland) is a Finnish politician. She started her political career in 1996, when she was elected to the Kuhmo town council. In 1999 she was elected to the Finnish Parliament, and again in 2003. In ...

Jyrki Katainen Jyrki Tapani Katainen (born 14 October 1971) is a Finnish politician who served as the European Commission's Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness from 2014 until 2019. Katainen was previously Prime Minister of Finland fr ...

, and

Jyri Häkämies Jyri Jukka Häkämies (born 30 August 1961) is a Finnish politician and the CEO of Confederation of Finnish Industries The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK, fi, Elinkeinoelämän Keskusliitto, sv, Finlands Näringsliv) is the largest emp ...

. All of those who in receipt of campaign finance funding from Vilppula's company Mekaanikontalo became ministers in Prime Minister Vanhanen's government. The politicians were embarrassingly unaware of their largest backers. Kal Mäkelä and the Ruukki group also donated to support the Center and National Coalition Parties in 2007, and many of the candidates they supported ended up as ministers under Matti Vanhanen. Lehtomäki, then the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development received €10,000 for the March 2007 elections from Ruukki Group and another 10,000 from Vilppula's Mekaanikontalo. Ruukki Group has also been a major donor for elections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilppula, Ahti 1959 births Finnish businesspeople Living people Finnish expatriates in Belgium Finnish expatriates in England