The businessman is charged with serious accounting offences. The prosecutor claims the right to a business ban for at least three years for the person, who has previously been punished for accounting offences, where he received a suspended sentence.
The trial, which begins in 2025, concerns verifications in the bookkeeping, where the businessman handled the data. The minimum prescribed penalty for serious accounting offenses is imprisonment for six months.
In several of the companies connected to the businessman, two former elite players have held board positions. None of them are suspected of crimes, and some of the companies have gone bankrupt over the years. But the former elite players still sit on the board of other active companies, and there the businessman is the principal in two of the companies.
The former elite players are today employed by Malmö FF – despite the history with the accused businessman. In the indictment’s preliminary investigation report, the Ecocrime Authority touches on document falsification as one of the main issues. The businessman denies the allegations.
The businessman was a board member and chairman of a company that went bankrupt.
In that company, the former elite player, whom we call Patrik, was a member, and signed three annual reports together with the businessman between 2015-2017. The year after that, in 2018, Patrik and Göran – who we call the other former elite player – were among those who wrote the annual report in the same company.
Patrik also signed in 2018 that the businessman would represent the bankrupt company in legal and financial matters. During the same period, the businessman together with Patrik signed two board meeting minutes, as well as two multi-million dollar loans to the company.
The businessman is suspected of having signed a large number of documents on behalf of others, including the former elite players. In some cases they have been informed of this, in other cases not.
In an interrogation, the businessman describes that, formally speaking, the ultimate responsible person was the businessman himself, and that together with the member Patrik, he signed the accounts, and thus they were ultimately responsible for the accounting.
According to the businessman, the company had no money, but the bills were paid from related companies through loans from them. The businessman said in the same interrogation that the chief executive was ultimately responsible, i.e. himself, but that Patrik reported further whether the accounting was okay.
Patrik will appear in court as a witness and denies that he tampered with any accounting.
– I myself have invested money in these companies, that is why I have been involved in them, says Patrik to Fotbollskanalen.
How do you feel about a business partner being prosecuted?
– Yes, we’ll see what it is. I’ll have to look into it, I can’t really answer that question.
In what way have you been involved in the companies?
– I have only stood as a member. I have been quite passive.
Patrik resigned from his role as deputy in one of the companies where the businessman was the principal, and was a member of two bankrupt companies.
Göran was a member of one of the bankrupt companies and remains as a deputy in another where the businessman is the principal. Göran, who has not been heard in the case, explains his role in the companies:
– It has been completely passive. Never had anything to do with the operation and don’t want to either, he says.
How do you feel about a business partner being prosecuted?
– It’s obviously not something you look at positively. But it is not the case that the people involved are doing something for their own gain. Since his role in the companies – as I understand it, the indictment reflects something that happened further back. And he hasn’t been convicted yet, as far as I know.
– I have not actually been touched by this, but heard it on hearsay, this prosecution.
How do you view your involvement in the two companies that you remain in?
– Completely passive. I am a deputy, I have no influence over the decisions and I don’t want it either. I just want to stay informed. That’s another thing.
Göran is a deputy in another company where the businessman is not the principal. Patrik is a member of that company, where he signed a power of attorney for another person to represent the company, according to a document that Fotbollskanalen has seen.
The company sent several invoices of SEK 150,000 each to various property owners on land that the company claims. It led to a joint police report from the property owners, who called them bogus invoices.
However, the police report was dropped.
– It’s not a fake invoice. It is the case that that company manages those roads. But it has been withdrawn and there is an ongoing investigation by the Land Survey. Since it has been reported to the police, the police have nothing to do with this, says Patrik.
But it was reported to the police.
– Yes, it’s probably because they don’t want an invoice in that case.
Goran:
– Why would it be a fraudulent invoice if you own the roads? They claim it, those who received it (the invoice). But then you can claim it on all invoices you receive. It feels like a rather weak case when it is the company that owns the roads, he says.
Niclas Carlnén is CEO of Malmö FF. He is tight-lipped regarding the fact that his two employees are involved in companies where the principal is now being prosecuted.
– I do not know the details of the indictment. But I have spoken to the employees, apart from that I have no direct comment, says Niclas Carlnén.
But you have been informed of the prosecution?
– Yes.
What do you know about the case itself?
– Nothing that I will comment on in the media.
Looking at the value base that employees are supposed to relate to, what is your opinion that two are connected to a charge like this?
– As I said earlier, I know about it and I have had a dialogue, and it has existed for a long time. So for me it is nothing new and they are well aware of what Malmö FF stands for.
Will you follow up on this, with the two employees?
– I will follow it exactly as I have done before. It’s nothing different.
Patrik and Göran are called something else.
