In 2018, Telia's former CEO Lars Nyberg and two other top executives are charged with gross bribery, after Assignment review reveals that Telia paid around SEK 3 billion to obtain licenses in the new market in Uzbekistan - money that ended up in bank accounts belonging to Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the country's dictator.
But when the trial starts, Nyberg has resigned, Telia has admitted the bribes and also paid a record amount in fines to the United States after a US investigation of the deals in Uzbekistan.
Chief Prosecutor Gunnar Stetler hopes that the case will be a guide, but it will not be so.
- The prosecutor went on a real setback, he made a fatal misjudgment, says Claes Sandgren, senior professor of civil law at Stockholm University.
No payments under the new law
According to the then prevailing law, the person receiving money must have formal power to make a decision in order for it to be seen as a bribe.
But Gulnara Karimova is an informal person in power and thus not bribed, according to the district court.
Teliacheferna frias.
During the trial, Chief Prosecutor Gunnar Stetler lists all payments Telia made to Karimova during Lars Nyberg's time as CEO, a total equivalent to around SEK 3 billion.
But he does not mention any payment made after 1 July 2012. It is a key date because a new, broader and sharper, bribery legislation will then enter into force.
If there had been payments from Telia to the dictator's daughter after 1 July, it could have meant a conviction for the Telia managers.
Want $ 20 million for "protection"
Secret documents that Uppdrag granskning has read, together with freelance journalist Ola Westerberg, reveal a previously unknown affair between Telia and Gulnara Karimova.
It takes place after the new bribe legislation comes into force - and goes on behind the scenes at the same time as Lars Nyberg goes out in the media and denies that Telia Sonera would have paid bribes or been involved in money laundering.
A document from July 12 states that the dictator's daughter wants $ 20 million, at today's exchange rate equivalent to around SEK 175 million, for "protection" so that Telia in Uzbekistan will not be seized by the state.
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According to several of the documents, Telia's top management will be informed of the settlement.
The plan must, according to interrogations that American investigators do with a Telia manager, have been approved by Lars Nyberg and his right-hand man - Tero Kivisaari, operations manager for the operations in the East, provided that the payments were not visible in accounting at the head office in Stockholm.
- It is amazing, says lawyer Peter Utterström, when he gets to take part in the information.
The arrangement is that the payment goes from the Telia-connected company Eurasia Advisory Services to Morriby Global - a mailbox company written in a tax haven with no visible business, which protects the actual owner: Gulnara Karimova.
- As you describe it, the crime "Trade with influence" could be applicable.
Then, of course, one must make an assessment of the probative value of this information.
But, if we still stick to a principled level, it speaks for itself that you could get a conviction on that basis, says Claes Sandgren, senior professor of civil law at Stockholm University.
Prosecutor: I do not intend to answer the question
The person who can answer why the new possible bribes were never raised during the trial is Chief Prosecutor Gunnar Stetler.
Assignment review may take part in communication between him and Uzbek prosecutors - which shows that he received information about Telia's new payments.
In a letter dated 2017, the Uzbek prosecutor emphasizes that Telia's payments did not end in 2010 - but continued in 2012 and 2013.
Gunnar Stetler today does not want to comment on the information due to confidentiality.
On several occasions, do you become aware that there were additional payments?
- I do not intend to answer the question, what considerations I made more than what is covered by the indictment.
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Timeline of the agreement
Lars Nyberg does not want to appear in an interview with Assignment review.
Through his defense lawyers, he confirms in an email that the issue of protection reached him in the summer of 2012 - but writes that he refused to pay.
He states that he has never heard of a new transaction of 20 million dollars, and writes that neither Swedish nor American authorities have found one.
"An investment of that size, according to the company's rules and principles, would have required that I, as CEO, recommended and the Board decided."
But the information from Nyberg does not match the documents Assignment review reviewed.
With the help of bank statements, it is possible to trace 12 of the 20 million dollars mentioned in the agreement from 2012. The money ended up in an account at a Latvian bank belonging to Morriby Global, the company which is reportedly controlled by Gulnara Karimova.
“It may sound a little cowardly”
Telia's current General Counsel Jonas Bengtsson confirms that the company itself encountered information about transactions to Morriby Global during its joint investigations with authorities.
Who sanctioned this deal, from Telia's side?
- I do not know.
As far as I know, we never got that far in our part of the investigation.
Why have you not told the public about these hitherto unknown payments?
- I think we have said quite a few times that we can not comment on details in the material.
I can understand that it may sound a bit cowardly, but we must have some respect for the fact that this ongoing legal proceedings are extremely important to many parties involved.
The evidence is missing from the trial
According to several experts with whom Assignment Review spoke, the new payments should have been of interest to a prosecutor - if they had arrived earlier.
When the Court of Appeal hearings are now held in the autumn, the new evidence will be missing.
Can you initiate a new investigation, can you start a new process?
- There you have the problem with prescription time.
The limitation period for this type of crime is five years.
This means that they are "long gone", says lawyer Peter Utterström, who is supported by Natali Engstam Phalén, lawyer and general secretary at the Department of Bribery.
- These payments could have been tested against the new types of crime introduced in 2012, trade in influence and careless financing of bribery.
But today it is over.
Gunnar Stetler claims, in contrast to the legal experts Assignment Review spoke to, that it had not been possible to prosecute under the new bribery law with the new evidence.
Assignment review has contacted Tero Kivisaari and Gulnara Karimova, their agents have chosen not to respond.
Read this story in english by the international journalist network OCCRP here.