The five suspects arrested in Sundsvall have connections to two municipal companies, Angelica Vallgren, press officer at the Swedish Economic Crime Agency (EBM), said on Tuesday morning.
"There is another person who has been taken in for questioning but who is not a suspect. The person is connected to the case and has been taken in for questioning in Stockholm," Vallgren said.
Those arrested in Sundsvall will be questioned during the afternoon and material seized during the investigation will be reviewed, according to Vallgren.
Server searched for emails
EBM declined to say which people are involved and which municipal companies they are connected to.
"It is a matter of preliminary investigation secrecy," Vallgren said.
The raid in Sundsvall was carried out to gain access to a server.
"There is particular reason to assume that there are email conversations related to the crime and that these email conversations are found on a server in the relevant premises," wrote prosecutor Linnea Hedström in the search request, according to SVT Västernorrland, which first reported the incident.
"Surprised and dismayed"
"We are of course surprised and dismayed," Kicki Strandh, the municipality's communications director, told TT.
The house search was carried out in the morning, she said.
"But we don't know when the arrests were made. We haven't received that information."
The seizure was made within the framework of a preliminary investigation into serious accounting fraud and serious fraud, the Swedish Economic Crime Agency said in a press release. The penalty for these crimes is imprisonment for up to six years.
Corrected: An earlier version provided incorrect information about the sixth person brought in for questioning in Stockholm.
Accounting crimes are committed when one or more people mishandle the accounting for a business. This can involve carelessness, failure to record business transactions, discarding receipts and other verifications, providing incorrect information, or neglecting to meet annual reporting requirements.
Accounting crime is considered serious when it involves large amounts, if forgeries have been used, if the crime is systematic or if it is "of a particularly dangerous nature".
Fraud involves someone spreading false information to influence prices of, for example, goods, securities, or property. Here too, the crime becomes serious if it involves large amounts or is systematic, but also if the crime involves a breach of trust.
Source: Economic Crime Authority
