ZCZC
BCN-26
SWEDEN-BANKING-FRAUD
Swedbank chairman quits over money-laundering scandal
STOCKHOLM, April 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The chairman of Swedbank, the Swedish
lender accused of money-laundering in Baltic countries, stepped down on
Friday, the bank said a week after the board sacked its chief executive.
“Lars Idermark has, with immediate effect, decided to leave the role as
chair of Swedbank. Thereby, the current deputy chair, Ulrika Francke, will
become new chair,” the bank said in a statement.
Swedbank has been embroiled in scandal since February when an
investigative news show on public broadcaster SVT claimed to have seen
documents showing that at least 40 billion kronor (3.8 billion euros, $4.3
billion) of suspicious transactions had been channelled to Baltic countries
from Swedbank accounts.
Many of the transactions took place between 2007 and 2015, and some of the
money may have first transited Danske Bank, which is at the centre of a giant
money-laundering scandal.
Last week, Swedbank’s board fired CEO Birgitte Bonnesen over the scandal.
US financier Bill Browder, who has made an international career of going
after money-launderers, reported Swedbank to the Swedish economic crime
authorities (EBM) over the allegations.
But EBM announced on April 1 that it would not open a criminal
investigation due to the five-year statute of limitations and because the
events occurred before Sweden’s anti-money laundering laws were tightened in
2014.
Browder has appealed that decision.
However EBM is investigating Swedbank for fraud and insider trading, as
the lender is suspected of favouring its 15 biggest shareholders by informing
them two days in advance of the contents of the SVT news report.
Swedish and Estonian financial supervisory authorities are meanwhile
probing the money-laundering allegations.
An internal Swedbank report obtained by SVT claimed that many of the
bank’s “high risk customers should never have been approved”, and, in some
cases, the bank “did not even know who the real owners of the accounts were,
nor where the money was coming from.”
BSS/AFP/HR/1400