The Swedish banks Swedbank and SEB have made it possible for the fraudulent suspected loan platform Envestio to divert multimillion amounts to a number of questionable companies and businesses. Up to SEK 300 million is gone.

Neither SEB nor Swedbank want to answer the question of how Latvian Envestio could become a customer with them. Both refer to banking secrecy. At the same time, both banks say they know the company.

At least SEK 62 million of the money spent through Envestio went through the company's main accounts in the Swedish-owned banks SEB and Swedbank.

"Feel safe"

According to Swedbank, the bank has done its job over the past year in controlling its Latvian customers.

"I feel confident that we have done as much as we can so far," says Anders Ekedahl, who sits on corporate management and is the head of Swedbank's Anti Financial Crime Unit.

According to Anders Ekedahl, investing in cryptocurrencies is a serious warning flag that banks must pay attention to. Nevertheless, Swedbank let Envestio become a customer, even though the company profiled on cryptocurrency.

- I can't comment on this. I understand that a police investigation is underway on this. In the Baltic countries, insofar as we are contacted by authorities, we will respond to everything we can - we have not become that, says Anders Ekedahl.

"Know the case well"

Prior to Swedbank, the investment company Envestio was a customer of the bank SEB.

SEB writes in an email that they "know the case well for a long time" and have a close and good cooperation with the authorities in the Baltic States to stop the fraud.

The bank also writes that they, together with the authorities, "have succeeded in stopping several fraudulent chains, not least through our important role in monitoring transactions and reporting police suspicious behavior. We also close accounts and customers when there is a suspicion of crime ”.

However, the bank gives no answers as to why SEB during the autumn 2018 to April 2019, Envestio let a large number of savers' money through the bank's account to a large number of doubtful customers.