HELSINKI—The Helsinki Court of Appeals has sentenced former Nokian Tyres P.L.C. President and CEO Ari Lehtoranta, along with several former employees, for securities market information offenses, the tire maker said April 10.
According to the charges, related to events around 2015-16, the company's board of directors and president had failed to disclose information affecting the value of Nokian's securities in December 2015.
Four employees also had allegedly made insider transactions with the company's stock options at the end of 2015.
The case was brought to court by Finnish prosecutors in fall 2020, following a May 2017 investigation request from the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority. In addition to the former CEO and four employees, the case involved board members Hille Korhonen, Raimo Lind, Inka Mero, Hannu Penttila and Petteri Wallden.
While the District Court of Helskini had dismissed all charges in 2022, the appeals court April 10 sentenced Lehtoranta and three other employees to fines and one employee to four months and 15 days of "suspended imprisonment for misuse of inside information."
The appeals court dismissed charges against Korhonen, Rind, Mero, Penttila and Wallden.
Nokian also was ordered to pay a corporate fine of about $56,000, but was found not to have engaged in malpractices in magazine tests, as alleged in the charges.
"We are surprised by the judgment of the Court of Appeal," Kai Kotiranta, the company's attorney-at-law, said in a statement. "We will go through the verdict carefully and assess separately whether there is reason to apply for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court."
The appeals court's judgment is not final, Nokian said, adding that the company did not have further comments on the matter.
