The Blekinge entrepreneur has been sentenced to prison for having committed serious accounting violations in six different companies.
At the same time, he has been active in many more people - on paper alone, he has sat as a board member or external signatory in 108 companies.
- And if you broaden the search field a bit and look at close relatives, suspected ID-hijacked individuals and even created individuals, it is about well over 200 companies, so it is a huge tangle, says Anders Björkenheim, expert in fraud prevention.
"Should have been pinched for a long time"
Anders Björkenheim is an expert on credit fraud and works as a lecturer and advisor to various banking and finance companies as well as various authorities.
He has for several years followed the Blekinge entrepreneur's company operations.
- In terms of numbers, it is one of the top players.
But in terms of skills and criminal prey, he is a small player.
The police should have been able to pinch this for a long time, but they simply do not prioritize this type of case, but leave it to suppliers to improve their routines so that they do not deliver goods without simply getting paid.
What makes this type of crime so difficult to investigate?
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It gets complicated when there are legal entities involved.
They take time to investigate.
You must prove who placed the order and that you placed it with malicious intent, ie that you never intended to pay.
Therefore, it is difficult to investigate the crime one to two years after it has occurred.
You have to treat it like a bank robbery, ie be on with resources immediately when you see that a falsified annual report has been submitted or the like.
Corporate fraud is becoming more common
According to Anders Björkenheim, fraud with companies that are used as a criminal tool is increasingly common.
- It is a huge problem and the criminals have also perceived it.
Both for different types of tax crimes, but also fraud crimes and money laundering.
I and several credit information companies have looked at this and come to the conclusion that today at least a thousand companies per year are used in pure credit fraud, says Anders Björkenheim.