Swedish court sentences ex-Swedbank CEO to prison
A Swedish court overturned her previous acquittal, sentencing former Swedbank CEO Birgitte Bonnesen to 15 months in prison for making misleading statements about the bank’s inadequate anti-money laundering measures.
An expert called the verdict of the Svea Court of Appeals “unprecedented.”
The lower Stockholm District Court had cleared Bonnesen of all charges in January 2023.
Following revelations in 2017–2018 that hundreds of billions of dollars could have been laundered through Danske Bank’s operations in the Baltics, Bonnesen was asked by reporters if Swedbank had similar problems with ties to that scandal.
“The court concluded that two of the answers were incorrect or misrepresented facts in a way that they were misleading,” Presiding Judge Sven Johannisson told reporters in Stockholm after the verdict.
In the interviews that Johannisson referred to, Bonnesen claimed that there were “no suspected money laundering-ties to Danske Bank’s operations in Estonia,” and that Swedbank “had gone through everything” to make sure there were no problems in the bank’s operations in the Baltics.
But to mislead is not enough to commit swindling, Johannisson stressed. What made the difference is the financial damage that her misleading statements caused.
When Swedish Television’s investigative flagship “Mission: Investigate” later published leaked information showing suspicious clients funneling tens of billions of dollars through the bank, Swedbank’s share plunged on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, resulting in substantial losses for the shareholders.
Bonnesen has consistently denied all charges. Her lawyer Per E. Samuelson told Swedish media he was shocked by the verdict and that his client would appeal.
Some of Swedbank’s clients were Russian oligarchs and some money flowing through the bank could be traced to the infamous so-called Magnitsky fraud in Russia, when $230-million in taxes from American investor Bill Browder’s fund Hermitage was allegedly stolen by high-ranking government officials and organized criminals.
Browder was pleased to hear about the verdict when OCCRP broke the news to him.
“This is an important decision to deter other bank executives from lying and manipulating information,” Browder said. “In the past, it was banks that were fined, but the CEOs always walked free. Now every CEO will have to consider their own personal liability before doing something similar.”
He added that “we had personal experience of Birgitte Bonnesen misleading us about the role that Swedbank played in the Magnitsky case in an apparent effort to avoid us filing criminal money laundering complaints against the bank. It’s comforting to know that such a pattern of behavior has been condemned by the law enforcement authorities in such a dramatic and emblematic way.”
Anti-money laundering expert Graham Barrow pointed out the uniqueness of the case.
“In my experience, this is an unprecedented outcome and one which should serve as a wake-up call to all senior managers and c-suite executives in regulated firms. Accountability is not just about some words written on a policy document or risk appetite statement but something real, tangible and which carries significant penalties if not delivered responsibly and effectively,” Barrow told OCCRP.
Even though Bonnesen is expected to appeal this verdict, is is far from certain that the Swedish Supreme Court will accept the case. It normally only handles cases when its judges think there is a need for a legal precedent.
Swedbank refrained from commenting on the verdict, pointing out that it was “not a party in the criminal case since it only dealt with the bank’s former CEO”.
The case has not been about whether money was actually found to be laundered through the bank, but how the CEO claimed that the bank handled such apparent risk. In addition to oligarchs, several Swedbank clients could be found in the Panama Papers from 2016, which exposed large-scale corruption, tax evasion and other financial crimes involving tax havens.
After the Swedbank scandal broke in Sweden, the bank had both its chairman and CEO replaced to restore confidence in its operations and clean up its act.
The bank’s poor anti-money laundering work led Finansinspektionen, the Swedish authority that monitors the companies on the financial market, to deliver a record $400-million fine in 2020. Swedbank is also being probed by U.S. authorities. The bank has said it cooperates fully with the investigations.
Bonnesen was also indicted for unlawfully disclosing insider information in a meeting with the largest shareholders of the bank. She was freed of those charges.
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