Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

lion from the account of a wealthy individual to an attorney’s business
account at another bank.
The following day the money was transferred again to a Swiss bank
account held by a Swede. The account holder tried to withdraw the entire
amount in cash, but the bank would give him only USD 100,000.
On 4 September, the holder retransferred the remaining sum of more
than SEK 8.9 million to the attorney’s account in Sweden. Three days
later, the attorney transferred the same amount to the client account of
another lawyer.
The second attorney purchased two SEK 4 million cashier’s checks, each
made out to a different company, on September 10. On the same day, the
checks were used to buy foreign currency at exchange offices in Stockholm
and Malmö. Thus, most of the money from the plundered bank
account had been converted and removed.
The second attorney tried to withdraw the rest by purchasing a third
cashier’s check for SEK 845,000. But when the bank refused, he wrote a
regular check for the same amount. At the request of the Swede with the
Swiss account, the check was made out to a foreign company.
The city court ruled that this type of fraud requires a plan involving several
people, each of whom does his part. The offender(s) could not have
expected to remove the money without difficulty unless other participants
in the chain of transactions had not been at least somewhat aware
that it had been obtained in a criminal manner.
The Swede with the Swiss account was sentenced to 2½ years imprisonment
for money receiving, while the first attorney was convicted of money
receiving, misdemeanour, and put on probation. A person involved in
exchanging the money was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for complicity
in money receiving. The second attorney was not convicted of
money receiving, but of providing negligent advice – he received a probated
sentence. In addition, the court found the guilty parties jointly and
severally liable for damages of approximately SEK 8.9 million to the bank
against which the fraud had been committed.
The court of appeal held with the city court that fraud of the type and
scope in question would require a thorough plan and several accomplices
in order to succeed.
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