Teuvo Ulander, known as a philanthropist, was sentenced for gross embezzlement and an accounting crime.
The Court of Appeal reduced Teuvo Ulander’s conditional prison sentence. EERO LEISMAMA
A Helsinki native known as the manager of ice ball club Botnia and a major influence in rinkball Teuvo “Teukka” Ulander71, has been convicted of aggravated embezzlement.
The Helsinki Court of Appeal sentenced the sports influencer to a 10-month suspended prison sentence.
Ulander worked as a treasurer and vice president of the Sports Association Bewe Sport 77 ry. The considered sports influencer and people mover embezzled a total of 142,886 euros from the club.
He transferred funds to his personal bank account and to the account of Bewe Liigalaiset ry, which he manages alone, and withdrew money from ATMs.
Big moves
Ulander admitted that he transferred the association’s funds for more than 140,000 euros, but considered that he had the right to transfer funds in his position of trust. According to him, the debt relationships between the different entities and the entries in the financial statements were later corrected.
Ulander has had the account access rights of Bewe Sport 77 ry alone and he has largely made all the association’s decisions and managed its running affairs alone.
The chairman of the association did not know about the transfer of funds and cash withdrawals, and Ulander’s purposes for using the funds for his own personal expenses, such as dentist visits, were not part of the association’s expenses to be reimbursed.
The crime is considered gross and caused particularly noticeable damage to the club. Ulander had embezzled funds for almost three years between 2016 and 2019.
The Court of Appeal reduced the district court’s previous sentence. Ulander was initially sentenced to a year’s conditional imprisonment at the Helsinki district court for aggravated embezzlement and accounting crime at the end of 2021. He appealed the sentence to the Court of Appeal.
In other respects, the judgment of the district court is unchanged.
Accounting messes
Ulander was also convicted of an accounting crime for misleading and false accounting as the club’s treasurer. Among other things, he was accused of using the funds for personal expenses and marking them as field expenses.
Later, Ulander had tried to cover up and correct accounting errors.
The district court ordered Ulander to be banned from doing business for three years. It will remain valid until December 2024.
Ulander is therefore not allowed to run a business that has an accounting obligation stipulated in the Accounting Act. Nor can Ulander serve on the board of associations or foundations.
The convicted person demanded the right of appeal to reduce the sentence imposed on him to a fine and that the business ban be revoked. Ulander told the Court of Appeal that he had paid almost all of the damages awarded to him to Bewe.
Bewe’s representative confirmed the matter. In the beginning, the club did not have a compensation claim for Ulander in the court proceedings, even though it demanded a punishment for Ulander.
The Court of Appeal considered that a settlement had been reached between Ulander and Bewe and the compensation was soon paid. The Court of Appeal took this into account and reduced the sentenced sentence by two months. The length of the business ban remained unchanged.
The convicted person can appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court by appealing only if the Supreme Court grants permission to appeal.
No extortion
In the same entity, an extortion case was discussed, in which Ulander was the interested party. Ulander claimed that he had made the transfers of funds in the embezzlement case under duress and threats. The extortionist would have been a Bewe employee employed by Ulander.
For several years, Ulander had made payments to the defendant for almost 80,000 euros, among other things, by paying his bills and expenses from his own and from the bank accounts of various associations.
According to the indictment, the defendant threatened to reveal matters about Ulander’s business and association activities, the disclosure of which would have caused financial difficulties for Ulander.
The prosecutor dropped the charge of aggravated blackmail at the end of the main hearing, but instead demanded that the defendant be punished for attempted aggravated blackmail. The company concerned claiming a loan of 40,000 euros. Ulander had not agreed to this performance.
The charge was dismissed in the district court, and the court of appeals did not change the verdict in this respect.
In the case, it remained unclear what exactly Ulander had been threatened with, as well as exactly why he had made remarkably large financial transfers to the man. In the case, it was also not shown that the man tried to force Ulander to give a loan of 40,000 euros by threatening.
Flea Market Emperor
Ulander is one of the most significant influencers in Finnish hockey. Although the golden days of the sport are behind him, he has been organizing game tournaments in Helsinki for a long time, in which hundreds of people have participated.
Ulander, also known as Botnia’s tinkerer, has also helped the hard-to-employ.
Ulander’s long list of accomplishments also included flea market operations. In 2021, Iltalehti will report how Remu Aaltonen sold his goods at Ulander’s flea market. Ulander was nicknamed the flea market emperor for more than 25 years of flea market activity.