Criminal suspicions | According to Kari Uot, Björn Wahlroos is suspected of defaming him, Wahlroos denies it – this is what the investigation request is about

Jurisprudence doctor Kari Uoti says that a major investor Björn Wahlroos suspected of defaming him.

Uoti says that last year he made an investigation request to the police regarding the second part of Wahlroos's memoirs, which is called Rainmakers. He does not want to say more about the investigation request.

“On November 21, 2023, I received information from the police that Wahlroos has been booked as a suspect in a crime. The criminal title is defamation,” Uoti says to Helsingin Sanomat.

Wahlroos says he is aware of Uot's request for an investigation, but denies the allegation of criminal suspicion.

“Of course, I am not suspected of anything,” Wahlroos tells Helsingin Sanomat.

The presumption of innocence the suspect and accused of a crime must be considered innocent until his guilt has been legally proven.

Defamation means false information or insinuations presented about another person, which is apt to cause damage or suffering to the injured party or contempt towards him.

The penalty for defamation is a fine.

Uoti worked in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a banker. In recent years, he has managed a law firm operating under his own name.

He was the first to tell about the criminal suspicion against Wahlroos MTV news.

According to Helsingin Sanomat's information, Uoti's request for an investigation mainly targets the sentence in Wahlroos' book, according to which in 1989 “the actual criminal arrangements of their [Jussi ja Kari Uotin] owned by Interbank were not yet common knowledge”.

Jussi and Kari Uoti bought the shares of Interbank in 1991. Wahlroos' claim about “criminal arrangements” in Interbank dates back to 1989. Uoti thinks that the book's claim is insulting to his honor.

Wahlroos also refers to March 1991 in his memoirs and writes that “Kari and Jussi Uoti's criminal activities at Interbank began to come to the attention of the authorities around the same time.”

Uoti relies on the fact that in March 1991 he and his brother had not yet acquired Interbank as their property and they were not in the bank's institutions. Uoti considers the book's claim to be insulting to his honor.

In the years 2001–2007, Jussi and Kari Uoti were sentenced to long prison sentences in the Courts of Helsinki and Turku for financial crimes.

Correction 3.3. at 2:11 p.m.: Björn Wahlroos' photo was taken by Juha Salminen, not Juhani Niiranen.