Former Swedbank CEO Birgitta Bonnesen was sentenced to one year and three months in prison by the Swedish Court of Appeal on Tuesday for fraud, Swedish media reported. The sentence concerns Bonnesen's actions between 2018 and 2019. She was the CEO of Swedbank from 2016 to 2019. The Stockholm District Court charged Bonnesen in 2022 with serious fraud and market manipulation, as well as disclosure of inside information. The district court noted that Bonnesen provided misleading information in connection with the way money laundering prevention, detection and reporting were carried out at Swedbank's Estonian branch. In February 2019, Swedish media managed to prove Swedbank's involvement in large-scale money laundering. According to media reports, Swedbank's Baltic branches had been used for money laundering for many years. The case is related to the Danske Bank money laundering scandal. Between 2007 and 2015, transactions worth 800 billion euros were made from Estonia, Russia, Latvia and other countries through Danske Bank's Estonian branch. In 2019, it was revealed that Estonian authorities were investigating Swedbank in connection with these transactions. It was concluded that at least 3.5 billion euros were transferred through 50 suspicious accounts between the two banks between 2007 and 2015. Swedish and Estonian regulators had previously fined Swedbank a record 350 million euros. In 2023, a district court acquitted Bonnesen of all charges, and now an appeals court has found her guilty of serious fraud and sentenced her to real prison time. She has been acquitted of other charges. According to Swedish media SVT, the appeal court found that Bonnesen "provided misleading information" when she was interviewed by Svenska Dagbladet and TT in connection with the publication of Swedbank's third-quarter 2018 report. "The information presented misleading news about the absence of suspicions of money laundering in the activities of another bank in Estonia," SVT writes, citing the Svea appeal court.
Former Swedbank CEO Sentenced to Prison in Sweden
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