Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

vision of Insider Crime in the 1990s) examines all 344 of the agency’s
investigations from 1991 through 1999. Twenty-seven investigations
were turned over to prosecutors, eight led to prosecutions and six to convictions.
BRÅ supports a research project at Lund University on corruption in the
private sector. An essay by Katarina Jacobsson and David Wästerfors in
Methods of Preventing Economic Crime argues that what constitutes bribery
in a legal sense may be appear innocuous in everyday terms. Phenomena
like bribery, subornation and corruption are described as “commissions,
consulting assignments, gifts, trips and receptions.”
Antoinette Hetzler at Lund University’s Department of Sociology also
stresses the importance of such grey areas in explaining economic crime.
Her 2003 examination of financial markets concludes that abuse walks a
fine line between what is legal and illegal.
A 2002 study by Samuel Cavallin, research fellow at the Jönköping International
Business School, also deals with how the financial market is
regulated. The regulation concerning improperly influencing share prices
focuses on legal measures, the illicit purpose of which is to make money
off the system. Cavallin maintains that the term illicit purpose represents
an attempt to criminalize behaviour in the grey area. His argument is that
the provision has no legal substance, given that what constitutes an illicit
purpose in the capital market is not generally known.
A BRÅ report entitled Organiserad brottslighet – lösa maskor eller fasta
nätverk (Organized Crime – Loose Mesh or Fixed Networks) (Korsell
et al, 2002) features a large number of researchers who provide a joint
overview of the situation in Sweden. They conclude that organized crime
consists of networks in which the offenders work together. That is particularly
true when it comes to smuggling of drugs, alcohol, tobacco products
and doping agents, as well as larceny, trafficking in women and arms
trafficking. Organized crime also involves such economic offences as tax
violations, shell company dealings, undeclared labour and fraud.
In partnership with the Swedish Insurance Federation, the Swedish
National Insurance Board, and the Faculty of Law at Lund University,
BRÅ has launched a research project on the connection between public
and private insurance fraud. A report by Helén Örnemark Hansen, Fredrik
Andersson and Anette Ohlsson, scheduled for release next year, will
describe methods of discouraging fraud. Central to the project is the
notion that closer cooperation between private insurance companies and
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