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CRIME

Multi-million data breach and fraud trial to get under way in Sweden

A startup, four banks and a superstore are understood to be among a number of organizations hit by a Swedish hacking and fraud attack that has now led to trial.

Published: 18 September 2017 16:47 CEST
Multi-million data breach and fraud trial to get under way in Sweden
The police press conference on Monday. Photo: Emil Langvad/TT

Swedish prosecutors declined to reveal the exact number of suspected victims in the case.

“There are more companies and authorities affected, but the charges cover those in the charge sheet. We selected the most clear-cut cases early on,” investigator Helena Ljunggren told a press conference on Monday.

Eight people face trial in connection with the case, which involves at least 40 million kronor ($5 million). 

The main suspect's lawyer, Jan-Anders Hybelius, told the TT news agency that his client admits several of the fraud allegations, but claims that he acted on other people's instructions: “The money did not go to him. His financial compensation was very modest, the way I see it.”

His 38-year-old client is the only one who is accused of data breach attacks, which he denies. The other seven are accused of having been involved to varying extents in the fraud incidents, according to Ljunggren.

In most cases the data breaches were carried out with the help of e-mail attachments opened by individuals, reports TT. The fraud incidents were allegedly committed when the perpetrators broke into computer systems to send payments to the wrong recipients.

The investigation covers aggravated more than a dozen fraud incidents amounting to around 25.5 million kronor and fraud attempts of 15 million kronor. TT reports that the money was sent to accounts in Sweden and then transferred to other accounts, sometimes registered in Sweden and sometimes abroad.

Investigators have been able to trace some of the money to Kosovo and Hong Kong.

Around 20 companies, four banks, several law firms and a number of private individuals are among those affected, as well as the Swedish Prison and Probation Service. 

Banking giant Swedbank was made to pay out 4.3 million kronor in the most serious of the fraud attempts, but the money has been secured, according to prosecutor Ljunggren.

According to the Kvällsposten daily, the Gekås superstore in Ullared, Ikano Bank, Resurs Bank, payment startup Klarna and construction firm NCC are also among those targeted.

The Sweden Democrat party said they had also received e-mails from the group, but did not think they had fallen victim to financial fraud. “Unfortunately these kinds of e-mails are quite common in society and we have procedures for how to handle them,” said the party's press officer Henrik Vinge.

The trial starts on September 26th in Malmö.

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POLITICS

Sweden Democrat justice committee chair steps down over hate crime suspicion

The Sweden Democrat head of parliament’s justice policy committee, Richard Jomshof, has stepped down pending an investigation into hate crimes.

Published: 13 September 2024 13:33 CEST
Updated: 13 September 2024 14:38 CEST
Sweden Democrat justice committee chair steps down over hate crime suspicion

Jomshof told news site Kvartal’s podcast that he had been called to questioning on Tuesday next week, where he’s been told he is to be formally informed he is suspected of agitation against an ethnic or national group (hets mot folkggrupp), a hate crime.

Prosecutor Joakim Zander confirmed the news, but declined to comment further.

“I can confirm what Jomshof said. He is to be heard as suspected on reasonable grounds of agitation against an ethnic or national group,” he told the TT newswire.

“Suspected on reasonable grounds” (skäligen misstänkt) is Sweden’s lower degree of suspicion, compared to the stronger “probable cause” (på sannolika skäl misstänkt).

The investigation relates to posts by other accounts which Jomshof republished on the X platform on May 28th.

One depicts a Muslim refugee family who is welcomed in a house which symbolises Europe, only to set the house on fire and exclaim “Islam first”. The other shows a Pakistani refugee who shouts for help and is rescued by a boat which symbolises England. He then attacks the family who helped him with a bat labelled “rape jihad”, according to TT.

Jomshof has stepped down from his position as chair of the justice committee while he’s under investigation.

“I don’t want this to be about my chairmanship of the committee, I don’t want the parties we collaborate with to get these questions again about whether or not they have confidence in me, but I want this to be about the issue at hand,” he said.

“The issue is Islamism, if you may criticise it or not, and that’s about free speech.”

It’s not the first time Jomshof has come under fire for his comments on Islam.

Last year, he called the Prophet Mohammed a “warlord, mass murderer, slave trader and bandit” in another post on X, sparking calls from the opposition for his resignation.

The Social Democrats on Friday urged Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose Moderate-led government relies on the Sweden Democrats’ support, not to let Jomshof return to the post as chair of the justice committee.

“The prime minister is to be the prime minister for the people as a whole,” said Ardalan Shekarabi, the Social Democrat deputy chairman of the justice committee, adding that it was “sad” that Jomshof had ever been elected chairman in the first place.

“When his party supports a person with clear extremist opinions, on this post, there’s no doubt that the cohesion of our society is damaged and that the government parties don’t stand up against hate and agitation,” TT quoted Shekarabi as saying.

Liberal party secretary Jakob Olofsgård, whose party is a member of the government but is seen as the coalition party that’s the furthest from the Sweden Democrats, wrote in a comment to TT: “I can say that I think it is reasonable that Richard Jomshof chooses to quit as chairman of the justice committee pending this process.”

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