The Finnish Supreme Court sentenced Jyrki Salminen, the former CEO of TJ Group, and Tuomo Tilman, the company’s former Chairman of the Board to two years and four months for insider trading. The case marks Finland’s first-ever non-suspended prison sentences for stock market crimes.
Helsingin Sanomat reports that the Supreme Court’s decision is seen as a major precedent in punishing white-collar crime, and comes after significant criticism from Finnish experts concerning what they have considered to be excessively lenient sentences for securities crime. The two defendants allegedly engaged in insider trading by selling shares of their company worth millions of euros after artificially glossing over the company’s economic difficulties to shore up the company’s share price.
The Supreme Court stated that the reasons for the unusually severe sentences included the planning that went into the crimes, the misuse of a responsible position, and the serious erosion of confidence in the securities market.
