I think it's important that as a CEO, you can't be arbitrary and misleading in your statements, says Joacim Olsson to TT.
However, he was positively surprised when the verdict came, at 2 pm on Tuesday – roughly six years after the disputed statements were made.
The stall tip was that the Court of Appeal would follow the district court's line, due to the difficulties in proving the fraud. At the same time, I really welcome the verdict.
"A correct assessment"
The district court's more literal interpretation of Birgitte Bonnesen's statements about the bank's problems with handling money laundering in Estonia, he thinks, was unfortunate.
The Court of Appeal looks at the context in which she makes her statements. It's a welcome message from the Court of Appeal.
According to Olsson, it was obvious to most people who listened to Bonnesen's statements when they were made – including in interviews with TT News Agency and Svenska Dagbladet – that they were misleading.
A conclusion one can draw now is that they were also misleading in a legal sense, i.e., the law works.
I think that's a correct assessment and conclusion, also based on how the market and others perceived what happened back then. I hope the Supreme Court follows the same line if there's a leave to appeal.
Bonnesen – who was acquitted by the district court in February last year – denies all allegations and the verdict will now be appealed, according to her lawyer Per E Samuelson.
It's not entirely unlikely that the Supreme Court grants leave to appeal, and then it'll take a couple of years before we know the outcome of this, says Olsson.
Risks massive fines
Bonnesen was denied discharge by Swedbank's annual general meeting in 2020, which means that Swedbank could pursue a damages process against her. The bank has, however, said that it won't do so, and Olsson doesn't think Tuesday's guilty verdict changes this.
Not with the current CEO and board, he says.
Previously, Swedbank – which still risks massive fines in the USA for inadequate handling of money laundering – was fined 4 billion kronor by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) for seriously failing in its work against money laundering.
In addition, the bank has had to pay fines for not handling insider information correctly, as revealed in the Uppdrag granskning program.
