Sweden’s Supreme Court acquits former Swedbank CEO Birgitte Bonnesen

Sweden’s Supreme Court has acquitted Birgitte Bonnesen, the former CEO of Swedbank, of all charges of gross fraud, Swedish public broadcaster SVT Nyheter reports. The ruling brings an end to a years-long legal battle over her statements regarding the bank’s suspected money laundering activities.

The case centred on whether Bonnesen, in 2018 interviews with news agency TT and newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, had concealed what she and the bank’s leadership knew about alleged money laundering at Swedbank—scandal first exposed in 2019 by investigative programmes Uppdrag Granskning and SVT Nyheter.

A district court initially acquitted Bonnesen, but an appeals court later convicted her of gross fraud, sentencing her to one year and three months in prison. The Supreme Court’s decision overturns that ruling, stating that her remarks were responses to journalists’ questions and fell under protections for freedom of expression.

“It has not emerged in any way that her purpose was to use the interviews as a means to spread misleading information that would influence the bank’s financial assessment,” the Supreme Court wrote in its judgment. The court added that the interviews were part of journalistic activity and thus protected under Sweden’s constitutional freedom of expression laws.

Bonnesen had also faced charges of insider information disclosure—allegedly informing major shareholders about an upcoming SVT exposé—but was acquitted of those in 2023. The Supreme Court’s review focused solely on the fraud allegations.

Bonnesen left her position as Swedbank CEO in 2019 amid the money laundering scandal, though the current case did not address those underlying allegations.