According to Mikko Pulkkinen, Jussi Markkanen’s mistake does not affect his position as sports director of the SM League.
Joel Sippola,
Manu Myllyaho
Evening newspaper reported on Wednesday how foreign fraudsters had managed to cheat the ice hockey championship league team SaiPa in Lappeenranta. The thread started with an email message that led to negotiations in Italy in the spring of 2022.
SaiPa’s CEO at the time in Milan, Italy Jussi Markkanen met Turkish partners who would have liked to invest in a Lappeenranta club. SaiPa fell into a trap and lost no less than 100,000 euros to fraudsters.
Markkanen currently works as the sports director of the SM league. CEO of the SM League Mikko Pulkkinen regards the case as a “cautionary” example”.
– A case that feels really awkward. Based on yesterday, I have the impression that the matter has been dealt with by Liiga-Saipan and Jussi Markkanen in progress. There has been no damage to Saipa, Pulkkinen commented.
Pulkkinen says that the incident does not affect Markkanen’s current position in the League.
– Jussi was the target of a scam as a company representative. He has performed particularly well in the SM league. This has happened during Liiga-Saippa and it has been fully processed there, Pulkkinen states.
Markkanen left Pest as CEO of the Lappeenranta club last spring.
Chairman of SaiPa Jussi Okko comment on Thursday in a press release that there was no financial damage to SaiPa from the incident. The press release also stated that Markkanen has acted with the club’s best interests in mind and finally accepted his mistakes.
– Liiga-SaiPa’s board or owners were not aware of the ongoing cooperation negotiations or other matters related to the case. The issues came to light to the organization’s management after the incident in early autumn 2022.
– Liiga-SaiPa has no foreign partners. As far as Liiga-SaiPa is concerned, the matter has been dealt with to the end.