SEB disclosure: Suspected money laundering customer owned companies in Skåne

The address of Supertel Sweden, as the company is called, now goes to an accounting firm in Hörby.

- We had the task of managing the Swedish accounting. We got the documentation in English and then we translated to Swedish, says Hans Ola Troedsson, who runs the accounting firm from home with his wife.

Supertel Sweden was started in Malmö in 1999 under the IT-yran. The company offered telephony via the internet. After a few years, the owners changed, behind them there were Russian interests. Operations were shrinking, and in 2005, no employees were left at all. That's when the accounting firm came into the picture.

- We were very surprised when we were contacted. The conversation took place in English, and we had not advertised for customers. They had found us on the Yellow Pages, says Hans Ola Troedsson.

Supertel's owners are included in Assignment Review's list of almost 200 SEB customers who may be suspected of money laundering.

The SEB customer is called the Loral Group and is registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Transaction lists show how the Loral Group has transferred money to a company in Belize, on the Caribbean, via bank accounts in the Baltics. The recipient was a customer of Ukio bank, a bank that was later investigated for money laundering. The payments were made in 2009.

Now SVT News can reveal that the company in Belize has links to the Magnitsky ravine, the big tax fraud in Russia, which was revealed by the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2008. Magnitsky was imprisoned after the disclosure and died in prison.

But the tracks from the Loral Group also lead us to Supertel Sweden. The company in the British Virgin Islands is involved in a complicated ownership structure around Supertel, with more tax havens involved.

And from 2008 onwards we find amounts and assets in the 100 million class that are not explained in Supertel's accounts. Sales rose in a single individual year, from SEK 1.5 million to SEK 147 million in 2008.

- We contacted the auditor and asked, because we did not want it to be a froth. But he said it was in order, says Hans Ola Troedsson.

But suddenly Supertel was filled with money. Loans over 100 million some years, money that you put on the bank or placed short term.

- The money came from trading. Everything is perfectly legal, says Igor Ganjusev.

He is Supertel's only regular board member, and has been CEO of Supertel's owner for several years, General Datacomm International in Tallinn, owned by Russia.

He says that the big loans we found in Supertel came from General Datacomm in Tallinn, and that the money went to a Swedish company so that the Russian owner would not have to pay taxes in both Estonia and Russia.

Igor Ganjusev turns out to be the spider in the web in a complicated ownership structure.

In 2016, the Scottish company Pittenkirk LLP became the owner of Supertel, while Igor Ganjusev was registered as the one who controlled Pittenkirk. With the owner, Loral Group, the SEB customer was on the Assignment Review list, together with the Dubai company GDC Middle East.

Igor Ganjusev says that the arrangement was a way to liquidate Supertel. Now several of the owner companies have been wound up, and the big money away from Supertel in the latest annual report. Wherever they have gone, he may or may not want to answer.

"No money has gone to me," he says.

Our review has not proved true money laundering, either in Supertel or in SEB customer Loral Group. But in order for the bank to have a legal obligation to investigate customer transactions, it is sufficient that there are question marks and suspicions.

If SEB has responded, we will not know, because the bank does not comment on individual customers. SEB also does not want to answer questions in an interview, but refers to a press release stating that it has strengthened its work on money laundering since 2008 and done away with 95 percent of the customers on the Assignment Review list.

However, the accounting firm responded directly when SVT asked questions about what emerged in the review.

- We have terminated Supertel as a customer. We did that right after you talked to me on the phone. We have not seen that it would be anything but scary, but if it is, we do not want to black the company, says Hans Ola Troedsson.