Former Swedbank CEO jailed for 'swindling' in Estonia money laundering case

Photo: Janerik Henriksson / TT News Agency / AFP / Scanpix

A Swedish appellate court on Tuesday sentenced the former chief executive of Swedbank to 15 months in prison for deceiving investors about the bank's links to the money laundering scandal related to Baltic countries, notably Estonia, AFP news agency reported.

Birgitte Bonnesen was found guilty of «gross swindling.»

Her lawyer, Per Samuelsson, told Swedish news agency TT he was «in shock» over the conviction and would file an appeal.

The Svea Court of Appeal overturned a district court ruling from 2023, which had acquitted Bonnesen, and comes five years after the eruption of a money laundering scandal implicating Swedbank.

Bonnesen was the CEO of Swedbank Group in 2019 when the Baltic money laundering scandal broke out. She has denied the charges, and in 2023, the Stockholm District Court acquitted Bonnesen of all charges. A key part of the indictment concerned Swedbank Estonia and the provision of incorrect information regarding anti-money laundering measures in Estonia.

In the appellate court, the prosecutor demanded that Bonnesen be sentenced to two years in prison.

In 2019, Swedish public service broadcaster SVT alleged that at least 40 billion kronor, equivalent at the time to 4.4 billion dollars, of suspicious and high-risk transactions had been channeled to Baltic countries, notably Estonia, from Swedbank accounts.

The revelations, which saw the bank's share price tumble, led to Bonnesen being fired.

The following year, Sweden's financial regulator fined the bank four billion kronor and warned it to follow anti-money laundering laws.

Prosecutors later charged Bonnesen, accusing her of «intentionally or by aggravated negligence» providing false or misleading information about the steps the bank had taken to prevent and detect suspected money laundering.

«The court concludes that the former CEO disseminated misleading statements in interviews with the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and the Swedish news agency TT in connection to the bank's release of its third quarterly report for 2018,» the court said in a statement.

«The statements conveyed the misleading message that there did not exist any suspicious money laundering links to the operations in Estonia of another bank,» it added.

Bonnesen's comments were deemed to be «liable to influence the assessment of the Swedish bank from a financial point of view, and thereby cause a loss,» according to the court.

Prosecutors had also charged Bonnesen with revealing insider information by informing the bank's main owners that the investigative documentary was coming.

However, the appeals court found that the information shared with the owners was not of «specific enough nature to be considered insider information,» it said in its ruling.

It -- like the district court -- therefore acquitted Bonnesen of the charge.