Former Swedbank CEO Bonnesen sentenced to prison in money laundering case

By Anna Ringstrom

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -A Swedish appeals court on Tuesday found former Swedbank CEO Birgitte Bonnesen guilty of gross fraud over her handling of anti-money laundering protocols in Estonia, sentencing her to 15 months in prison.

The conviction concerns statements by Bonnesen in two interviews with Swedish media in October 2018, in which the court said she gave a “misleading message” regarding the money laundering situation at the bank’s Estonia branch.

“The Court of Appeal convicts the former managing director of gross fraud,” the Svea Court of Appeal said in a statement.

Bonnesen was convicted of a single count in the indictment and acquitted of six other charges of gross fraud and market manipulation, the court added.

Swedbank’s CEO from 2016 to 2019 when a money-laundering scandal involving its Baltic business developed, Bonnesen has denied all charges against her, and a district court had in 2023 found her not guilty of all charges.

The judgement on Tuesday partly overturned the lower court’s verdict.

Bonnesen will file an appeal, Per Samuelsson, her lawyer, told Swedish news agency TT.

Prosecutors had accused Bonnesen of giving misleading information to shareholders and the public – intentionally or through negligence – on the bank’s measures to prevent, uncover and report suspicions of money laundering in Estonia.

“The court concludes that the former CEO disseminated misleading statements in interviews with the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and the Swedish news agency TT in connection to the bank’s release of its third quarterly report for 2018,” the appeals court said.

“The information was likely to influence the assessment of the Swedish bank in financial terms and thereby cause damage,” it said.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Terje Solsvik and Paul Simao)