To stop money laundering and terrorist financing, stricter controls on cash payments have been introduced.
These are cash sales over 5,000 euros, corresponding to just over 50,000 kronor.
The company must, among other things, secure who the customer is and where the money comes from.
The County Administrative Board of Stockholm is one of the supervisory authorities responsible for certain checks of suspected money laundering.
- There are criminals who for financial purposes try to launder money white by buying watches in cash, says Helena Remnerud who is unit manager for the supervisory department at the County Administrative Board in Stockholm.
Sentenced to pay millions
The Administrative Court has recently ruled against the three watchmakers:
Rob Engström has been sentenced to pay a sanction fee of SEK 5 million, which is less than what the county administrative board had demanded: SEK 8.5 million.
Nymans Ur is sentenced by the administrative court to pay SEK 3 million in penalty fees, the county administrative board wanted to see a fee of SEK 6 million.
Luxury Watches will receive a penalty fee of SEK 2.2 million.
The court writes in the judgments that the obvious shortcomings are serious, as the handling on the part of the companies has significantly increased the risk that the companies' operations will be exposed to money laundering or terrorist financing.
Nobody wants to appear in a TV interview
None of the companies have wanted to appear in an interview, but the CEO of Nymans Ur, Charlotta Eriksson, responds in an email to SVT:
“We take the fact that the county administrative board does not consider that we fully meet the requirements imposed on us in accordance with the Money Laundering Act very seriously.
We have taken their decision so seriously that we immediately (when the decision came) stopped handling cash in the company. ”
The judges have been appealed to the Court of Appeal and it is now up to the higher instance to grant leave to appeal.