The Trustor affair is one of Sweden's biggest financial scandals. The eco-criminal Joachim Posener devised a plan to buy Trustor with the company's own money and fronted the deal with a British lord from the family behind the Guinness beer. The investment company was robbed of a total of around 600 million kronor.
It wasn't the financial fortunes that were important to me, but the psychology behind the crime. Why do they leave their safe upper-middle-class environment and take this step? I would have had a moral compass there myself, says Karin af Klintberg.
“Feels fair”
In the Netflix documentary “The Trust Case,” financier Thomas Jisander (the only one to be convicted for his involvement) says his main motives were money and status. He proudly shows off his luxury apartment in Monaco, complete with champagne fridge and Versace bedspread. “This feels fair,” he says.
I love documentaries. If I had written the character Thomas Jisander, someone would have said, "He's not credible. You have to tone him down a bit," says Karin af Klintberg.
For Joachim Posener, the Trustor affair was more a way to overcome an inferiority complex and become part of the financial world. When the crime was revealed, he left his family and went into hiding for almost 30 years to avoid prison. Today, the crime has expired and he has finally agreed to be interviewed.
There's something about afterlife, Posener was approaching 60 and simply wanted to tell his story, says Karin af Klintberg.
The coup was possible because the Swedish credit market had been deregulated without the legislation keeping up. In “The Trustor Case,” Posener still claims that he only “took an illegal loan.”
It is sometimes in the criminal's DNA to justify crime with a more noble, long-term thought such as "it doesn't matter if I do something criminal now, because then I will convert it into a legal business," says Karin af Klintberg.
Strange sense morality
She herself is most fascinated by how the Trustor affair revelations caused the company's shares to increase in value afterwards. Partly through a settlement, money being found in various accounts and the banks involved being sued.
So the moral of the story is very strange because a crime caused Trustor's stock to rise.
Does crime pay?
Yes, but that doesn't make it any less interesting to reflect. That's how the world and capitalism look.
Born: December 26, 1976
Career: Worked at ZTV and TV4 in the 1990s, before later becoming a producer at the cultural magazine "Kobra" on SVT.
For SVT, she produced the television programs "The Worst Language" and "Sveriges Modernaste Land" with Fredrik Lindström as well as "Landet brunsås", "Historieätarna", "Bye bye Sverige" and the Christmas calendar "A Thousand Years Until Christmas" with Erik Haag and Lotta Lundgren, among others.
Directed and produced together with Jane Magnusson "Ebbe – the movie" about Ebbe Carlsson, as well as "Filip and Fredrik presented Trevligt folk" about the Somali national bandy team.
Received the Grand Journalist Prize in 2003 as innovator of the year together with Fredrik Lindström and in 2009 as narrator of the year for "Ebbe – the movie". "Ebbe – the movie" received the 2009 Guldbagge for best documentary film.
Courted the Swedish court to be able to make the documentary series "The King and I" (2023) about the life and work of King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Current with: "Trustorhärvan" which premieres on Netflix on August 5th.
