Jonas Falk was arrested for his suspected involvement in the scandal in Spain in August last year and has been detained since then. In October, he was extradited to Sweden and arrested. Now he is being prosecuted for attempted gross extortion and gross arson.
The crime is "particularly serious" says senior prosecutor Anna Stråth in a press release:
"It went on for over a year, while the investigation shows that both the company manager and his colleagues received very serious threats and that an arson attack was carried out to put pressure on the company manager".
A 61-year-old woman is also being prosecuted for aiding and abetting attempted gross extortion.
100 million
The threats against Joachim Kuylenstierna, founder and then CEO of the listed investment company Fastator, were sent from anonymous senders in 2023 and 2024 and contained demands for him to pay a claimed debt of 100 million kronor.
Colleagues also received threats and one of the colleagues' villas was subjected to an arson attack in the autumn of 2023.
The four plaintiffs, including Kuylenstierna, and their relatives have, according to the indictment, been "mapped, among other things, by being systematically photographed and filmed".
Jonas Falk is the one who has been behind the threats, according to prosecutor Anna Stråth. It is he who has decided on and given "instructions on the crime and its execution" and has also himself written demands and threats sent to Kuylenstierna, according to the indictment.
Falk denies the crime.
The extortion attempts are rooted, according to the prosecutor, in a multimillion investment made in 2009 in a company linked to Kuylenstierna. But the investor lost money and one of those involved was supposed to be Falk.
The Vårby network
Five people – including two men with ties to the Vårby network – were sentenced to prison already in December last year for involvement in the crimes. A "first step towards redress" commented Joachim Kuylenstierna on the verdict to TT via his plaintiff representative Jonas Granfelt.
The 52-year-old Falk is previously known since he was identified as the mastermind in one of Sweden's largest drug scandals, "Operation Playa", in 2010. However, he was acquitted in the court of appeal in 2014 and was awarded damages of 3.6 million kronor because he had been detained for 3.5 years.
