A Swedish court has sentenced Birgitte Bonnesen, the former CEO of Swedbank, to 15 months in prison for deceiving investors about the bank’s involvement in a money laundering scandal.
On Tuesday, the Svea Court of Appeal found Bonnesen guilty of “gross swindling,” overturning a previous district court ruling from 2023 that had acquitted her. The decision comes five years after Swedbank was linked to a major money laundering scandal.
Bonnesen’s lawyer, Per Samuelsson, expressed his shock at the conviction and announced plans to appeal. “I am in shock,” Samuelsson told Swedish news agency TT. “We will definitely file an appeal.”
In 2019, Swedish public service broadcaster SVT reported that Swedbank had transferred at least 40 billion kronor (about $4.4 billion at the time) in suspicious transactions to Baltic countries, especially Estonia. This revelation caused Swedbank’s share price to drop significantly and led to Bonnesen’s dismissal.
The following year, Sweden’s financial regulator fined Swedbank four billion kronor and instructed the bank to improve its anti-money laundering measures. Prosecutors charged Bonnesen with providing false or misleading information about the bank’s efforts to combat money laundering.
“The court concludes that the former CEO disseminated misleading statements in interviews with Svenska Dagbladet and TT in connection to the bank’s third-quarter report for 2018,” the court stated. “The statements conveyed the misleading message that there were no suspicious money laundering links to operations in Estonia.”
The court found that Bonnesen’s statements were misleading and likely to affect the bank’s financial assessment, causing potential losses.
Prosecutors also accused Bonnesen of revealing insider information by notifying the bank’s main owners about an upcoming investigative documentary. However, the appeals court decided that the information was not specific enough to be considered insider information and acquitted her of that charge.
