Ex-CEO of Swedbank sentenced for draud

Former Swedbank chief executive, Danish citizen Birgitte Bonnesen, has been sentenced to one year and three months in prison by the Swedish Svea Court of Appeal for aggravated fraud, involving misleading statements to media including Svenska Dagbladet and news agency TT during the bank’s third quarter report in 2018. She falsely conveyed there were no suspicious money laundering connections to another bank’s activities in Estonia. The accusations did not pertain to money laundering itself, but to her statements about what she knew as the bank’s top executive. Bonnesen consistently denied all charges and her lawyer Per E. Samuelson expressed shock at the verdict, indicating plans to appeal. Swedbank, previously fined 4 billion Swedish kronor by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, faces possible fines in the U.S. for inadequate handling of money laundering and will not comment on the judgment as it is not part of the legal proceedings.