This news has been updated with the information about the District Court's decision on 18 July 2025. The news was originally published on 9 December 2024 when the District Court began the trial.
The District Court's decision on 18 July 2025 states that the individual has been found guilty of aggravated fraud. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
A person who has previously managed VTT’s Legal team and subsidiary company VTT International Ltd is suspected of aggravated fraud and abuse of a position of trust. The trial started on 9 December 2024. He is suspected of having transferred tens of thousands of euros of company money for his own use during 2015–2018. VTT submitted a request for a preliminary investigation to the police about the events immediately after the completion of an internal investigation in 2018. The person's employment had ended in the same year.
At the time of the events, the company's accounting had been outsourced to an external accounting firm. The person is suspected of having circumvented the expense approval procedure by submitting bogus and unjustified travel and entertainment expenses. Since the suspicion became apparent, the subsidiary's accounts have been transferred to VTT's own financial management. According to our practice all expense approvals are made in the purchase invoice and travel invoice systems following strict two-step approval procedures. No similar abuse is possible anymore.
VTT takes all cases of misconduct seriously and investigates suspicions appropriately.
Further information:
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Leena Rantasalo, Vice President, Communications and brand
[email protected], tel. +358 50 300 7980
