18 people are indicted on suspicion of insider dealing in the ICA scandal.
Several of the defendants are Ica traders from southern and central Sweden.
The prosecutor is asking for a ban on business for between three and five years.
18 people, several of whom are ICA traders, are charged with insider crimes in the so-called ICA ring, writes the Ekobrottsmyndigheten in a press release.
“The prosecutor is also requesting that a total of approximately SEK 20.5 million be forfeited as compensation for the crime and that the district court should decide on business bans for between three and five years for the defendants,” the press release states.
The main suspects are Ica dealers at stores in southern and central Sweden. Other suspects are friends or relatives of ICA traders.
– Our theory early on in the investigation was that the information that there was an offer to buy ICA out of the stock exchange was leaked by someone from the ICA traders’ association board. A number of people then acted on the insider information, which at the time was not known to the market, by buying larger stakes, says Pontus Hamilton, chamber prosecutor and preliminary investigation leader at the Ecocrime Authority in a statement.
It was in March last year that the authority and the police raided the ICA traders’ office in Solna.
The text is updated.