Andersson, formerly of Vancor, was sentenced to six years in prison in the district court. The court of appeal reduced the sentence slightly to five years. Co-founder Thomas Nilsson was sentenced to four years and six months, the Svea Court of Appeal announced.
Andersson and Nilsson, along with two others who are also sentenced to longer sentences, have held central roles within the group. Together, the four have “committed serious environmental crimes in 18 different locations in the country,” the Court of Appeal wrote. The District Court considered that there were a total of 19 serious environmental crimes.
All four will also be banned from doing business for several years and will have to pay large damages.
Four more people who were convicted in the district court were convicted in the Court of Appeal of environmental crimes of a lesser degree.
At the same time, an environmental consultant who was convicted in the district court of aiding and abetting several cases of serious environmental crime was acquitted. According to the Court of Appeal, the investigation has not been able to show that the consultant misled the regulatory authorities or carried out sampling in an incorrect manner.
The Court of Appeal also acquitted TV personality Leif-Ivan Karlsson of serious environmental crimes. Karlsson, who once served as the group's CEO, was also acquitted in the district court.
For several years, the waste company Think Pink dumped hundreds of thousands of tons of waste illegally in a large number of locations around Sweden. The waste, mainly construction and demolition waste, was supposed to be sorted but was crushed and piled up or buried. It has been left near water protection areas, unprotected stormwater wells, homes and protected coastal areas, among other places.
