E96: How a jailed CEO has rocked Sweden’s banking sector

The Laundry

Former Swedbank chief executive, Birgitte Bonnesen, is facing 15 months in prison after being convicted of spreading misleading information about the bank’s money laundering problems in Estonia.

The conviction ties into one of Europe’s biggest money-laundering scandals where both Swedbank and Denmark’s Danske Bank were alleged to have allowed Russian oligarchs and criminals to move money through their Baltic branches and into the western financial system.

So with an incredibly senior figure from Sweden’s oldest bank now potentially facing prison time – is this crisis averted?

Our expert host, Marit Rødevand, is joined by Axel Humlesjö, Reporter at SVT and author of ‘The Honey Trap’, to discuss: how this story was uncovered by journalists in Sweden, the impact of Birgitte Bonnesen’s sentencing, and whether this is the *end* of Russia's attempt to infiltrate Sweden's institutions.

Producer: Matthew Dunne-Miles

Engineers: Dominic Delargy and Nicholas Thon

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The Laundry podcast: Dive deep into the intricacies of financial crime, AML (anti-money laundering), compliance, sanctions, and the ever-evolving landscape of financial regulation.

Hosted by Marit Rødevand and Fredrik Riiser – this podcast features renowned experts from banking, fintech, compliance, and investigative journalism.

Together, they shed light on the industry's trending topics, analyse mainstream news through a compliance-focused lens, and connect the fight against financial crime to its real-world consequences and ramifications.

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