SVT told us this fall that the police were investigating suspected data breaches against writer Patrick Siegbahn, who for a long time examined the fund company pension company Allra on its Småsparerguide site.

Siegbahn noticed that his cellphone could not connect to the network, and it turned out that he was subjected to a so-called sim swap : Someone had the operator move his phone number to another sim card, and then used the number to take over his Google -account.

Siegbahn discovered a number of unknown files on his computer, and concluded that the intruder simply synced the computers to each other.

Must have used driving license

The prosecutor has now decided on charges against a 46-year-old man who was previously convicted of, among other things, arms crimes and theft. He has been identified by the files in Patrick Siegbahn's computer and is suspected of three offenses:

  • Rough data breach - as the material in Siegbahn's Google Account contained valuable information about Siegbahn's sources, for example.
  • Illegal use of identity - by having the suspected offender present himself as Patrick Siegbahn during a conversation with the telecom operator.
  • Counterfeit - in that he also forged a proxy from Patrick Siegbahn, complete with a picture of Siegbahn's driver's license that should have been retrieved from the Google account.

The preliminary investigation shows that the person who made the data breach has shown interest in people connected to the Allra case, including the Prosecutor Tomas Hertz and an SVD journalist who examined the Allra case.

EBM: "A wider context"

In a special memorandum, the Swedish Crime Authority writes that the suspected data breaches caused EBM to take special security measures around its staff. It is believed that data breaches should not only be seen as individual crimes against a private person but "put into a larger context of suspected crime of a completely different dignity and great social impact".

Patrick Siegbahn states for SVT that he welcomes the prosecution.

- It feels great that this long process is finally coming to an end. It is a serious crime to search for journalists' sources that have negatively affected me and others.

Denies crime

The prosecuted 46-year-old rejects in the interrogation all charges and claims to be subject to planted evidence.

In February, the district court released all four defendants in the first trial of Allra. The judgment has been appealed by both the prosecutor and the Pension Authority.

Allra's former CEO has previously rejected, through his lawyer, all knowledge of suspected data breaches.