Aleksi Valavuori has other creditors in addition to the Tax Administration.
- Aleksi Valavuori has tax debts in foreclosure for half a million euros.
- There is no exact information about the money earned by the whale-skiing project.
- Last year, Valavuori received a little over 25,000 euros in earned income.
– If I succeed in Valahiihto, I will be able to clear the table and pay more than half a million in condemned taxes.
Sports influencer Aleksi Valavuori presented a tough goal in the spring of 2021. He planned to ski a million meters in a month and sell each meter for a euro.
In January of last year, Valavuori, who confessed to gross tax fraud and gross accounting crime, was sentenced to a business ban. In addition to the suspended prison sentence, he must compensate his tax mistakes to the Tax Administration. The amount of unpaid taxes at the time of the judgment was 402,893 euros.
The foreclosure register at the end of September shows that Valavuuori’s tax debts have increased in interest. There are still pending residual tax liabilities in the register for a total of 539,642 euros.
During the Whale Skiing project, the target curve of one million euros was updated on Valavuori’s website as the pot grew. When Russia attacked Ukraine, Valavuori announced that he would stop collecting money for his own project and donate the money that comes after that to Ukraine.
March 16, 2022 Valavuori told having skied to the finish line and succeeded in the goal of a million skiing meters.
How much money did the Whale-skiing project make? It has not been made public. Based on the foreclosure register, Valahiihto’s proceeds have not reduced debts at least significantly.
Iltalehti reached out to Valavuori before Wednesday’s tax day and asked for an interview regarding, among other things, Whale Biking. Valavuori did not want to comment on anything.
Desk drawer company
Aleksi Valavuori is banned from doing business. Whale skiing’s money was transferred to the account of a table drawer company named Lucratum oy. Jussi Eskola
You could donate different amounts of money to whale skiing. The more valuable package you bought, the more goods you got in return, such as training programs, diplomas and VIP tickets to the project’s closing party.
The Title Sponsor package was the most expensive, priced at 100,000 euros. With the Aja ita varsaa package, you could join the project for a fee of 100 euros.
Valavuori updated the progress of his ski trip with screenshots from the Sports Tracker application. At the end of the skiing day, he posted a picture of the Sports Tracker map showing the route traveled. In addition, he shared videos on his social media accounts and participated in the broadcasts of his Twitch talk show.
Questionable comments were also heard about whale skiing on talk shows and on social media. Some of the followers would have liked to see real-time monitoring from the ski trail to verify the project.
The money earned from whale-skiing packages went to Lucratum oy, whose turnover was minimal before the last fiscal year. However, last year’s turnover jumped to 207,000 euros. Lucratum oy was founded already in 2000, so it has practically been the desk drawer company of its person in charge.
The person in question also sits on the board of a few other companies. Like Lucratum, the annual turnover of these companies has only been in the thousands of euros, with one exception.
The newest of the companies is Ultijam oy, founded this year. Valavuori’s website states that the Valavuori.com website and the Valavuori Live brand are owned by Ultijam oy.
Other creditors too
Aleksi Valavuori also participated in Celebrity Big Brother last year. Timo Korhonen / AOP
Valavuori Live is the most talked about sports talk show in Finland, according to the website Valavuori.com.
It was founded on the streaming service Twitch in the spring of 2020. According to the site, Valavuori’s latest videos visible on Twitch have 2,000-4,000 views. This year, Valavuori Live has sponsored, among other things, baseball players and acted as a match host in the Kotka Eagles’ American football match.
According to last year’s tax data published on Wednesday, Aleksi Valavuori earned 25,556 euros in earned income. He worked all last year on his talk show, which is partnered with, among others, Kärkkäinen.
Since Valavuori is banned from doing business, he has had to work as an employee of a company. In addition, the sports personality participated in the Big Brother program. According to IL’s information, the BB contestants received a reward for participating.
In addition to tax debts, he has debts to a businessman totaling tens of thousands of euros To Jussi Salonojato Kultaranta Resort oy and its CEO Pekka to Jokisuu.
Valavuori worked as the creative director of Kultaranta Resort in 2011–2013.
– He bought a leisure apartment from us, of which I owned half and he owned half. We sold it in a good spirit together in 2013. He didn’t pay the purchase price, so I got a claim when he had paid less for the apartment, says Jokisuu.
According to Jokisuu, Valavuuori has had the intention of paying off its debts over the years. He adds that the relationship between the two is “proper”.
Years of tax shenanigans
Valavuori did not want to comment on his current situation to IL. Based on social media, he has traveled a lot abroad, such as in Spain.
For this article, IL would have liked to ask where he lives, who pays his living expenses and who he works for.
Known as a loud public figure, Valavuuori’s tax scam continued for several years. According to the district court’s verdict, he hid his income and gave false information between 2013 and 2016.
In those years, Valavuuori’s income was 805,921.65 euros more than he had declared.
– My life control was completely lost during these years as well, as I have openly and publicly told. I should have been able to handle these things much better, but I couldn’t. It’s pointless to look for the guilty anywhere but in the mirror, Valavuori commented in January 2021.
The judgment does not specify where the huge income came from. In those years, however, he worked, among other things, as an affiliate of international betting companies.
The “affiliates” of game companies aim to bring new customers to the companies and make money as customers lose money in games. Affiliate activities came into the public discussion at the latest in the spring of 2015, when Ylen MOT published an article and episode on the subject.
Valavuori was also involved in the Voittolinja service that shared game tips.
For the Tampere NHL games played last weekend, Valavuori offered his Twitter followers the chance to win match tickets affiliate link through. The link took you to the website of an international gaming company, where you were asked to register as a customer of the company.