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Man gets 4 years for insurance swindle

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Man gets 4 years for insurance swindle
Photo: Mattias Olsson

A 28-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in prison after he was found guilty of embezzling 36 million kronor from Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) in Gothenburg. Gothenburg District Court found him guilty on Friday of breach of trust rather than the more serious crime of fraud.

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He has also been ordered to pay the agency 30 million kronor in compensation.

The man's 38-year-old cousin was handed a two year jail term for receiving a portion of the stolen money. Though he confessed to the crime, the man claimed that he only knew of the embezzlement of 2.5 million kronor. The court ordered him to pay damages amounting to 3.5 million kronor.

The 38-year-old's wife was given a suspended sentence after she was found guilty of a receiving offence. She denied having committed a crime.

The court cleared the 28-year-old's wife of all charges against her. Although 3 million kronor had been paid into an account in her name, she claimed that she thought the money had come from her husband's father. She had also received 15.5 million kronor into a bank account she shared with her husband.

The 28-year-old man embezzled the funds over a two year period from May 2005 to May 2007 while working with the agency in Gothenburg.

The scandal was uncovered in May after Swedbank contacted the agency with details of suspicious cash transactions. The four suspects were arrested in their homes the next day.

Police estimate that 33-34 million kronor of the stolen money has already been spent. For example, the 28-year-old and his wife were found to have bought a new house and a number of cars.

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