Sulo Karjalainen faces serious accounting offense charges at Oulu District Court in Kuusamo

Sulo Karjalainen, the founder of the Kuusamo Large Predator Centre, is facing charges of serious accounting offenses. The trial begins today at the Oulu District Court in Kuusamo. Alongside Karjalainen, a woman from Joensuu, who previously served as the accountant for the centre, is also on trial.

The charges are related to the company’s accounting practices and the retention of accounting documentation. According to the prosecutor, the alleged offenses occurred between 2013 and 2020. Specific details about the charges have not yet been disclosed to the public.

During the police preliminary investigation, several other individuals were also suspected of wrongdoing. However, the prosecutor decided not to press charges against them. The decisions to drop charges are public documents, which reveal that serious deficiencies were found in the accounting records of the predator center during the investigation.

The documents indicate that the company’s accounting records are missing for the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018. Authorities have expressed difficulty, or even impossibility, in clarifying matters recorded in the company accounts due to the inadequacies in accounting and administrative processes.

The trial is set to commence at 10 AM, with Yle monitoring the proceedings on-site. Updates will follow as the case progresses.