Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

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Since the autumn of 2002, EBM has conducted a project to uncover economic crime as soon as possible using the Swedish Companies Registration Office’s information about such delinquent businesses. Since newly started companies are traditionally in the risk zone in terms of serving as tools of economic crime, the project places them at centre stage. Given that the Companies Act requires accountants to report suspected illegal activities, the effort also examines their actions with regard to the businesses involved. The project was limited to 82 reports of suspected false accounting. • In 15 cases, annual reports were subsequently submitted and no pretrial investigations were launched • In 15 cases, pretrial investigations of other suspected offences were already under way • Of the remaining 52 reports, 23 people were deemed to be engaged in serious economic crime • Seven judgments have been handed down so far, all convictions • A total of 49 companies have declared bankruptcy The project will be fully evaluated in 2004. It is already clear that the working methods and cooperation have proven successful, allowing crime to be discovered and prosecuted at a very early stage. That is extremely important from the point of view of prevention, even increasing the likelihood of tripping up crime while it is still in progress. 90
14. Research on Economic Crime 15 Swedish research on economic crime has long been neglected. In 1998- 2002, BRÅ provided SEK 26 million in grants to promote such research. The source of the initiative was the Government’s 1995 strategy for combating economic crime, a cornerstone of which was the need for greater knowledge in the area. In White-Collar Crime Research. Old Views and Future Potentials – Lectures and Papers from a Scandinavian Seminar, published by BRÅ in 2001, Sven-Åke Lindgren, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at Göteborg University, talks about how white collar crime has interested researchers ever since the 19th century. Martin Bergquist’s licentiate dissertation Ekonomisk brottslighet – Något att räkna med (Economic Crime – Something to Consider) (2002) for the Department of Criminology at Stockholm University thoroughly examines the concept as it appears in international literature. Fiffelstrategier vid ekonomisk brottslighet (Strategies in the Commission of Economic Crime) (2003) by Tage Alalehto at Umeå University’s Department of Sociology reviews international research and provides an overview of the various types of offences involved. He focuses entirely on the methods employed by offenders. An essay by Alalehto and Jan Sjödin in Förebyggande metoder mot ekobrott (Methods of Preventing Economic Crime), published by BRÅ in 2003 at the initiative of the Swedish Economic Crimes Council’s cooperating agencies, describes a Swedish case in which a spurious contractor cheated both the county administrative board and the municipality out of millions of kronor. The investments that were to attract employment and wealth to the community never arrived. Kartin S. Thornton, Associate Director of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, examined 263 Swedish companies that declared bankruptcy in 1988-91. In 2002, she posed the question as to how shareholders can be sure that the company’s executives are not using the money for private gain. They can divest the company’s assets at a loss to busi- 15. This section is an abridged version of a brochure published by BRÅ in 2004. 91
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ECONOMIC CRIME REPORT Report no. 20
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Economic Crime Report
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Government Swedish Ministry of Just
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Economic Crime and Efforts to Comba
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Economic Crime - Current Status and
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Economic Consequences of Economic C
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Interagency Cooperation Measures Th
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Undeclared Work • Employers who h
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A CLOSER LOOK AT UNDECLARED WORK, V
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VAT Fraud There is always a risk th
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Trends Over the Next Three Years Fo
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Concluding Remarks The purpose of t
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Contents 1. Introduction 6 2. Curre
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10.5 NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION PROJ
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Table 31 Number of decisions by oth
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2. Current Status of Economic Crime
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detected offences are documented, a
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sentative of both commercial goods
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mentary evidence for verifying actu
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SKV put together documentation to l
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that a certain volume of uncollecte
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Table 3 Estimated tax error linked
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The minimum tax rates on alcohol ar
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• Businesses, such as: - Tax plan
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According to the court of appeal, t
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loan prohibition, the Accounting Ac
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4. It has a definite focus, though
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“A number of groups are engaged i
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Council and its task force have con
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Special joint consultation groups f
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4. Intelligence and Monitoring Oper
Page 66 and 67: The total money involved in transac
Page 68 and 69: Intelligence Operations of Tax Crim
Page 70 and 71: Graph 13 Number of audits, 2000-200
Page 72 and 73: 2002 to 2003. The sums involved in
Page 74 and 75: Money Laundering, etc. A newly esta
Page 76 and 77: Since the project started on 1 Apri
Page 78 and 79: Manipulated cash registers are the
Page 80 and 81: professional criminals to one degre
Page 82 and 83: official figures. In the autumn of
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Page 86 and 87: Graph 25b Total number of reports o
Page 88 and 89: Graph 26 Cases received, 1998-2003
Page 90 and 91: Table 30 Number of decisions by EBM
Page 92 and 93: Graph 34 Average throughput time fo
Page 94 and 95: 6.5 TAX CRIME UNITS Expansion of ta
Page 96 and 97: Graph 38 Trading prohibitions, 1998
Page 98 and 99: 9. Attachment, Collection, etc. The
Page 100 and 101: Graph 43 Unpaid taxes and fees (SEK
Page 102 and 103: Since a coordinated effort to recov
Page 104 and 105: According to the proposals, the age
Page 106 and 107: and employers concerning registrati
Page 108 and 109: suggest that attitudes are continui
Page 110 and 111: 84 • a regional informational pro
Page 112 and 113: 12. International Contact and Coope
Page 114 and 115: 13. Skills and Methods Development
Page 118 and 119: nesses under their control, grant l
Page 120 and 121: social insurance offices could prev
Page 122 and 123: 15 Problem Areas and Future Threats
Page 124 and 125: • higher unemployment • distort
Page 126 and 127: 15.3 UNDECLARED WORK IN CASH SECTOR
Page 128 and 129: EBM’s pilot project on measures f
Page 130 and 131: 15.5 AGENTS WHO AID ECONOMIC CRIME
Page 132 and 133: ied out indicate that most transact
Page 134 and 135: Appendix 1 CHANGES PROPOSED BY SAME
Page 136 and 137: SKV • SKV should have limited aut
Page 138 and 139: Transport Workers’ Union VAT Info
Page 140: Reported economic crimes have incre
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