Comment 65 for bug 1713615

Debian package downloads the font files with wget, using a lot of parameters and several possible URLs, so it eventually succeeds.
Ubuntu package uses update-notifier, which in turn uses apt-helper ( thanks the sources in Python language ), which uses I don't know what...
I found a method leading to a successful installation of Ubuntu package. The clue consists in :
1. pre-loading the font files with wget,
2. create a small database file for debconf, telling that the EULA MS licence has been accepted and that the font files are stored in a certain directory,
3. installing the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package after setting two debconf variables.

For point 1, I wrote a little script using wget with the same options that the debian package and the same URL as Ubuntu package.
For points 2 and 3, I wrote a little script that generates the debconf file, sets and exports the variables DEBIAN_FRONTEND and DEBCONF_DB_OVERRIDE, and successfully calls apt-get install.