Kilvar Kessler, the former head of Estonian Financial Supervision Authority, said that the Swedish Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the fraud conviction of Swedbank’s former CEO Birgitte Bonnesen at least puts an end to the matter, which he views as positive.
Birgitte Bonnesen, who led Swedbank from 2016 to 2019, was convicted in the fall of 2024 by a Swedish court of appeal in connection with the Estonian unit’s money‑laundering case. According to the ruling, Bonnesen had provided misleading information in media interviews in 2018 regarding the bank’s financial performance.
On Tuesday, however, the Swedish Supreme Court overturned all charges brought against Bonnesen.
Kilvar Kessler, who headed the Financial Supervision Authority for years and stepped down from the post this January — and whose tenure also coincided with the Swedbank money‑laundering scandal — told ERR that he is familiar with the latest court decision only through the media and therefore does not know its details.
He noted, however, that both the Estonian and Swedish financial supervisory authorities, which do not deal with criminal cases, completed their work years ago.
“The perspective and evidence used in the Swedish criminal proceedings are unknown to me, so it’s difficult to comment on that. But it is certainly positive that a final conclusion has been reached, and if someone has been a party to proceedings, they have now at least gained clarity,” Kessler said.
At the same time, Kessler pointed out that although Estonian media have also reported the case as if Bonnesen were accused of money laundering, this is not correct.
“She was accused of market abuse — of misleading the stock exchange or investors by providing information to the media that did not correspond to reality,” Kessler explained. “The Swedish court has now said that in order to conclude that she is guilty of market manipulation, her intent to mislead investors must also be proven.”
A more detailed assessment of what happened would, according to Kessler, require reviewing the evidence and being familiar with Swedish law.
“As for events in Estonia, the Financial Supervision Authority launched proceedings involving Swedbank in February 2019. We conducted a thorough inspection, and by 2020 Swedbank had put its processes in order with regard to its Estonian operations and transparent banking,” Kessler recalled.
According to the former head of the authority, the inspectorate at the time wanted to impose a fine on Swedbank, but it can do so only within the framework of supervisory proceedings.
“The prosecutor’s office said at the time: no, don’t do that, we will carry out a criminal investigation ourselves,” Kessler said.
Two parallel proceedings are not allowed, in order to avoid the risk of double punishment, and therefore the Financial Supervision Authority withdrew its own proceedings.
In March 2022, the State Prosecutor’s Office brought suspicions against Swedbank Estonia and its former executives for money laundering amounting to more than €100 million. The investigation concerned the years 2011–2016 and could have resulted in a fine of up to €16 million for the bank.
Two years later the prosecutor’s office announced that it was terminating the criminal proceedings. The then Prosecutor General Andres Parmas explained that although evidence had identified activities and violations at the bank indicating money laundering, it was not possible to gather additional evidence to prove suspicions regarding the criminal origin of the funds, and therefore the charges could not be brought before a court.
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