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In 2018, former Telia CEO Lars Nyberg and two other top executives were charged with aggravated bribery. after allocation review disclosure that Telia paid around three billion crowns to obtain licenses in the new Uzbekistan market, money that ended up in bank accounts of Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the country’s dictator.
But when the trial begins, Nyberg resigned, Telia admitted the bribes and also paid a record amount in fines to the United States following a US investigation of the Uzbekistan deals.
Attorney General Gunnar Stetler hopes the case will serve as a guide, but it won’t.
– The prosecutor suffered a real setback, made a fatal error of judgment, says Claes Sandgren, professor of civil law at Stockholm University.
No payments under the new law
Under the law in force at the time, the person receiving the money must have formal power to make a decision in order for it to be considered a bribe. But Gulnara Karimova is an informal ruler and therefore has not been bribed. according to the district court. Cold Teliacheferna.
During the trial, Attorney General Gunnar Stetler lists all of the payments Telia made to Karimova during Lars Nyberg’s time as CEO, totaling around 3 billion SEK. But it does not address any payments made after July 1, 2012. It is a key date because then a new, broader and more precise bribery law will take effect.
Had there been payments from Telia to the dictator’s daughter after July 1, it could have spelled doom for Telia’s managers.
He wants $ 20 million for “protection”
The secret documents that Uppdrag Granskning has read, along with freelance journalist Ola Westerberg, reveal a previously unknown romance between Telia and Gulnara Karimova. It takes place after the new bribery legislation came into effect, and continues behind the scenes as Lars Nyberg appears in the media and denies that Telia Sonera paid bribes or was involved in money laundering.
A July 12 document says the dictator’s daughter wants $ 20 million, at the current exchange rate equivalent to 175 million Swedish crowns, for “protection” so that Telia in Uzbekistan is not confiscated by the state.
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According to several of the documents, Telia’s top management will be informed of the agreement. The plan must, according to US investigators’ interrogations with a Telia manager, have been approved by Lars Nyberg and his right-hand man, Tero Kivisaari, operations manager for operations in the East, provided the payments were not visible in accounting for the central office in Stockholm.
– It’s amazing, says lawyer Peter Utterström, when it comes to participating in the information.
The agreement is that the payment goes from the company Eurasia Advisory Services, connected with Telia, to Morriby Global, a letterbox company written in a tax haven with no visible business, which protects the real owner: Gulnara Karimova.
– As you describe it, the crime “Trading with influence” could be applied. Then, of course, an evaluation of the probative value of this information must be made. But, if we still stick to a principled level, it speaks for itself that a conviction could be obtained on that basis, says Claes Sandgren, senior professor of civil law at Stockholm University.
Prosecutor: I do not mean to answer the question
The person who can answer why the new potential bribes were never raised during the trial is Attorney General Gunnar Stetler.
The allocation review may be part of the communication between him and the Uzbek prosecutors, showing that he received information about the new payments from Telia. In a letter dated 2017, the Uzbekistan prosecutor emphasizes that Telia’s payments did not end in 2010, but continued in 2012 and 2013.
Gunnar Stetler does not want to comment on the information today due to confidentiality.
On several occasions, have you found out that there were additional payments?
– I do not pretend to answer the question, what considerations I made more than what is covered by the accusation.
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Lars Nyberg does not want to appear in an interview with Assignment review. Through his defense attorneys, he confirms in an email that the issue of protection reached him in the summer of 2012, but writes that he refused to pay. He claims that he has never heard of a new $ 20 million transaction, and writes that neither the Swedish nor the American authorities have found one.
“An investment of that size, according to the rules and principles of the company, would have required that I, as CEO, recommend and the Board decide.”
But Nyberg’s information does not match the Revised Assignment Review documents. With the help of bank statements, it is possible to trace 12 of the $ 20 million mentioned in the 2012 agreement. The money ended up in an account at a Latvian bank belonging to Morriby Global, the company that is allegedly controlled by Gulnara Karimova.
“It may sound a bit funky”
Telia’s current general counsel, Jonas Bengtsson, confirms that the company itself found information on transactions with Morriby Global during its joint investigations with the authorities.
Who sanctioned this deal, by Telia?
– I do not know. As far as I know, we never got that far in our part of the investigation.
Why haven’t you told the public about these hitherto unknown payments?
– I think we have said many times that we cannot comment on details in the material. I can understand that it may sound a bit cowardly, but we must have some respect for the fact that these ongoing legal proceedings are extremely important to many parties involved.
Trial evidence is missing
According to several experts Assignment Review spoke to, the new payments should have been in the interest of a prosecutor, if they had come earlier. When the Court of Appeal hearings are held in the fall, the new evidence will be missing.
Can you start a new investigation, can you start a new process?
– There you have the problem of prescription time. The statute of limitations for this type of crime is five years. This means that “they left a long time ago,” says lawyer Peter Utterström, who is supported by Natali Engstam Phalén, a lawyer and general secretary of the Bribery Department.
– These payments could have been tested against the new types of crime introduced in 2012, influence trading and careless financing of bribery. But today it’s over.
Gunnar Stetler claims, in contrast to the legal experts Assignment Review spoke to, that it had not been possible to press charges under the new bribery law with the new evidence.
The assignment review has contacted Tero Kivisaari and Gulnara Karimova, their agents have chosen not to respond.
Read this story in English from the international network of journalists OCCRP here.
