Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

2002 to 2003. The sums involved in VAT rulings were down by more
than 50% from 2002 to 2003. But the total for payroll taxes rose following
1999.
Total tax surcharges decreased in 2002-03, but were higher than in 2001
– with the exception of income taxes, for which there was a steady decline
throughout the period.
4.3 SUPERVISION BY FINANSINSPEKTIONEN
Finansinspektionen’s duty is to promote orderly financial markets by
improving the supervision of securities trading and exchanges. In that
connection, the agency is to consider the impact of supervision on the
credibility and efficiency of financial markets.
Developments that arouse suspicion of irregularities in the trading of
financial instruments are to be analyzed and to constitute the basis for
identifying cases deserving of investigation. An investigation should
always be conducted when insider crime or improper influence on share
prices is suspected.
Insider Crime and Improper Influence on Share Prices
The tables below present figures on investigations and reports of suspected
insider crime and improper influence on share prices. The number
of new cases rose in 2003.
The year’s trends are as follows.
• More cases involving suspicion of insider crime were turned over to
prosecutors, one reason being shored-up investigative resources. The
number of cases that were opened remained at the same level as previous
years.
• There were fewer new cases involving suspicion of improper influence
on share prices. Since such behaviour was generally detected
by the price supervision units of the exchanges and subsequently
reported to Finansinspektionen, it is difficult to draw any conclusions
from the decline.
• The agency prioritizes cases in which specific people are under suspicion
from the very beginning, as well as those related to takeover
bids, profit warnings or large, important orders. Tax considerations
are clearly the motivation in many cases of improper influence on
share prices.
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