Following the attention to extensive suspected money laundering at Danske Bank last fall, Swedbank's management commissioned an investigation report from reputed Norwegian lawyer Erling Grimstad. He has previously been, among other things, the Deputy Chief of the Norwegian Eco Crime Authority.
According to previous media reports, in January this year Swedbank's management received the report which according to information on extensive suspected money laundering in Swedbank's Baltic operations. It also had a series of very sharp recommendations to the management regarding extensive countermeasures.
Instead, Swedbank chose to keep the report secret. At Swedbank's press conference last week, in connection with the bank's AGM, Chairman Lars Idermark said that he had not yet read the report. SVT has after this in writing asked the bank whether the chairman read the report. On Wednesday, a board representative returned and said that the board had taken note of the report during the "end of the week".
Obstructed the prosecutor
According to prosecutor Thomas Langrot, who is investigating Swedbank for, among other things, suspected gross fraud, Swedbank's board of directors has refused to submit the report to him, which made the investigation more difficult. In connection with a raid at Swedbank's headquarters, the prosecutor seized the investigation. The bank's board of directors and lawyers tried to stop the prosecutor by referring to the lawyer's confidentiality.
The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority also took note of the report.
On March 27, Assignment Review and SVT News were able to reveal parts of the top secret report. The report stated that Swedbank did not live up to the basic requirements imposed on a bank for how to handle suspected money laundering.
But it is only now that SVT has received the entire report.
On Wednesday morning, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority released the report after a confidentiality review. The report is mostly masked. But it is possible to read out some details.
According to the first page of the report, the report is a draft of a preliminary "Anti Money Laundering Report", ie a money laundering report. It is dated December 10, 2018. The recipient is Swedbank's compliance officer. The person was one of the former CEO Birgitte Bonnessen's closest associates and the same person who signed the documents with incomplete answers the bank sent in April, in response to a US financial authority's questions about the bank's suspected money laundering. This means that the report was available to the bank management much earlier than previously known.
Attorneys' privacy does not apply
In the decision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, the Authority considers that the bank's reference to legal counsel is not valid with regard to the publicity of the documents. Instead, the inspection has tested the report on the basis of, among other things, business confidentiality in the Public and Privacy Act. This could mean, with the same interpretation, that the prosecutor can access the contents of the report.
The report is relatively short. The first parts are only 35 pages. The heading is masked, but according to the content that Assignment Review and SVT News previously took note of it reads: "Extensive violations of measures against money laundering identified in Swedbank Estonia".
The following chapter describes the serious findings the lawyer made regarding money laundering.
The curve on page 12 is crossed out. However, when SVT previously took note of the report via sources, it shows that the bank's foreign "high-risk customers" had sales of between ten and 20 billion euros each year, ie upwards of 200 billion SEK per year, between 2010 and 2016.
The curve on page 21 is also dark but contains information on how few reports Swedbank made about suspected money laundering.
Sharp recommendations
The following chapter contains fifteen clear recommendations. In the version Finansinspektionen published where most are marked in black, the words "should" come back several times. That is, it should.
Previously, SVT News and Assignment Review have been able to reveal that the recommendations apply, among other things, that the bank should immediately report the suspected money laundering to the authorities in Sweden and Estonia. In addition, the bank should immediately stop destroying documents that may have probative value.
According to the content that SVT previously consulted, Erling Grimstad writes that Swedbank has closed its eyes for suspected money laundering for a long time.
"A number of high-risk customers were approved despite a lack of information about real owners, company structure, revenue sources and the true purpose of the business relationship."
The report contains five parts. First, an “Executive summary”, ie a summary. Since observations and relevant findings, part four has appendices and the last part contains Swedbank's comments.