Yle traces suspected Swedish spies’ ties to France and the Caribbean

Two Swedish men detained in Finland on suspicion of espionage were both born in France and have links to a Panamanian foundation and a company in the British Virgin Islands, investigative broadcaster Yle reported.

Yle obtained copies of the men’s Swedish passports through the Pandora Papers data leak. Both men were born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a municipality west of Paris, and had listed the same apartment in Härnösand, a small coastal city in northern Sweden, as their home address for at least a decade. They also share the same middle and last names.

The men, born in 1986 and 1988, were detained by the Helsinki District Court on Wednesday on the basis of criminal suspicion. Police suspect the offences took place between August 30 and September 12. According to Yle, the men were arrested in Finnish Lapland.

Yle’s investigative team is not publishing their names because they have only been suspected of crimes. Detentions on suspicion of espionage are extremely rare in Finland. The men reportedly asked for court proceedings in Finland to be interpreted into French.

Panamanian foundation and offshore company

The Pandora Papers show that the man born in 1986 contacted the Panamanian law firm Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, known as Alcogal, in late 2015. The firm operates in several offshore jurisdictions and provides company formation and administration services.

He first established a private foundation in Panama. Such foundations more closely resemble companies than the public-benefit foundations recognised under Finnish law and are used particularly for asset management, asset protection and inheritance planning.

Alcogal then established a company in the British Virgin Islands, whose owner was the Panamanian foundation. The 1986-born man was the beneficial owner of both entities. The man born in 1988 was appointed the foundation’s “protector”, a role broadly comparable to an alternate board member of a Finnish foundation.

The British Virgin Islands company operated for about a year before being dissolved in late 2016. The leaked documents and public sources do not show what activities or financial transactions the company had.

Owning an offshore company is not illegal in itself, provided it is not used, for example, to conceal taxable income or commit other financial crimes.

Yle found no known criminal convictions for either man in Finland. The broadcaster also asked Swedish district courts about possible convictions, but found none. Swedish register searches do not show convictions more than five years old or information about sealed cases.

Plans for a bank account in Uruguay

Before establishing the foundation and company, the 1986-born man provided the Panamanian law firm with information about his background. The documents contain relatively little information about him.

He said he would invest his own funds in the company, but the documents do not state where the money came from or how much was involved. He gave his address as the same municipality of Härnösand where he is still registered as resident. He described his occupation as asset manager.

He also provided a letter he had requested from the banking group Nordea. The letter described him as a trusted customer and said he intended either to work or study in Uruguay, which was why he wanted to open a bank account there.

The leaked documents do not show whether he ultimately opened an account in Uruguay or what connection he may have had to the country.

Another document shows that his offshore company opened an account with Panama’s Credicorp Bank. The leaked material contains no account information, so it is unclear whether funds were moved through the account.