According to the niece who contested the will, Kirsti Paakkanen did not intend to bequeath her entire property to the children.
Kirsti Paakkanen’s black Jaguar was a familiar sight in Helsinki in recent years. JARI TERTTI
- According to Regina Paanala, Kirsti Paakkanen planned to leave at least her homestead in Saarijärvi, which was especially dear to Paakkanen, to her and her son.
- The will dispute took a big step forward today after the prosecutor made decisions not to prosecute in criminal cases related to wills.
- Paakkanen, who piloted Marimekko’s success, died in November 2021. He had no spouse or children.
In the will dispute of entrepreneur advisor Kirsti Paakkanen, there has been a lot of talk about millions of assets, a villa in Nice, an apartment in Westend and precious jewelry.
Based on the preliminary investigation material published by the police today, however, at the center of the dispute is a place whose greatest value is measured in hours. Namely Kirsti Paakkanen’s home farm located in Saarijärvi.
Kirsti Paakkanen’s long-running will dispute took a significant step forward today, when the prosecutor made the decision not to press charges regarding criminal suspicions.
At the center of the dispute is the homestead
Paakkanen publicly said during his lifetime that he intended to bequeath his fortune to “Finland’s gifted children”. According to the sister, Paakkanen did not mean his entire property.
Paakkanen’s niece, Regina Paanala, said in police interrogations that she understood that only part of the property was intended to go to the foundation. He found the will suspicious and surprising.
– I understood that part would go to the foundation and through it would be distributed to the children of Finland. That’s what she (Kirsti Paakkanen) was afraid of, that if Miettinen is involved in the foundation, the money will go elsewhere than intended. What was surprising was that the entire property was transferred to the foundation. It was only intended to move a part. That was my understanding, said Paanala during the interrogation.
According to Paanala, Paakkanen wanted to leave at least his home farm in Saarijärvi to him and his son. It was the home of Paakkanen’s parents, which he had renovated.
Several witnesses described the home as extremely dear to Paakkanen. The house is also the childhood home of Paanala’s parents.
According to Paanala, Kirsti Paakkanen had said that she had not made a will.
– Until the very end, he has said that he has not made a will. That’s why it was a surprise that he had a will.
Case manager as a suspect
Kirsti Paakkanen died in November 2021, but her inheritance has still not been distributed. IL archive
Entrepreneur advisor Kirsti Paakkanen prepared the will on September 23, 2015 and refined it on August 5, 2020.
In a will signed in 2015, Paakkanen assigned his assets to a foundation to be established later, whose mission was “to promote the development and internationalization of Finnish design and to promote and support teaching in these areas”.
In the summer 2020 supplement to the will, Paakkanen stated that it is not necessary to establish a new foundation, because Kirsti Paakkanen’s foundation fulfills the conditions of the previous will with the change of rules.
Paakkanen’s relatives were not taken into account in the will in any way. Paakkanen died in November 2021 without a spouse and children.
According to Paanala, the wills did not represent Paakkanen’s last will. Paanala suspected the will to be forged and filed a criminal complaint. A case manager under criminal suspicion Kari Miettinen described the whole thing as absurd and the accusations as “really outrageous” in his own interrogation. Miettinen has handled Paakkanen’s financial affairs since the 1970s.
The prosecutor announced on Monday, November 17, that it will not press charges against Miettis.