Former Swedbank CEO Birgitte Bonnesen Convicted for Misleading Information

The former CEO of Swedbank, Birgitte Bonnesen, was sentenced to 15 months in prison by a Swedish appeals court. The conviction was due to misleading information related to the bank's money laundering incidents in Estonia. Bonnesen, who led Sweden's most historic bank from 2016 until her dismissal in 2019, was found guilty of 'gross deception' by the Svea Court of Appeal. This makes her the highest-ranking Swedish banker to be imprisoned as a result of this scandal. Previously, she headed Swedbank's Baltic operations. The court examined various statements Bonnesen made to the press and stock analysts, determining that two of these statements were either incorrect or presented facts in a manner considered misleading under Swedish criminal law. Her lawyer, Per Samuelsson, announced that Bonnesen would appeal the verdict. She was acquitted of other charges. The conviction is related to one of Europe's largest money laundering scandals. Both Swedbank and Denmark's Danske Bank were reportedly part of a system that allowed Russian oligarchs and criminals to funnel money into the Western financial system through their Baltic branches. The court stated that Bonnesen made 'misleading statements' in newspaper and television interviews associated with the bank's third-quarter 2018 results, which falsely suggested there were no suspicious money laundering connections in Estonia. Sweden’s Economic Crime Authority charged Bonnesen with fraud and market manipulation in January 2022. Swedbank commissioned Clifford Chance to produce a report, which found that the bank had conducted €37 billion worth of high-risk money laundering transactions between 2014 and 2019. An internal Swedbank report concluded that between 2008 and 2013, approximately €80 billion flowed through business with non-resident clients in the Baltic states, primarily from Russia and other former Soviet states. After the Clifford Chance report was published in March 2020, Swedbank declared Bonnesen’s severance package invalid. Her statements in late 2018 and early 2019 were found to be inaccurate or presented without sufficient context. Nonetheless, the bank decided against pursuing its own legal battle with Bonnesen or her predecessor Michael Wolf, who was in office from 2009 to 2016.