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

businessman A businessperson, also referred to as a 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 ...

. Born in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, Vilppula lives abroad but has financial interests in his native country. Vilppula started exporting between the West and the then

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He moved to

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

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

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

.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 Ji ...

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

, 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 as St. Petersburg. As of 2022, o ...

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 Nordic financial services group operating in northern Europe with headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The Nordic countries are considered ...

) and insurance company

Sampo Bank Danske Bank A/S (, ) is a 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 custome ...

. 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 landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

-based

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

s and

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

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; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

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 glo ...

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 illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

, 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 Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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 The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

(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 f ...

, and

Jyri Häkämies Jyri Jukka Häkämies (born 30 August 1961) is a Finnish politician and the CEO of Confederation of Finnish Industries. He was Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs between 2011 and 2012, and a representative of the National Coalition Party, and ...

. All of those who were 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