A new indictment in the Falcon Funds scandal reveals that 6,800 Swiss gold coins and 30 gold bars disappeared in a money laundering scheme.
The prosecutor suspects that an agent for the ringleader, Max Serwin, is behind the missing gold.
In the Stockholm district court, the verdict is awaited in a case in which a couple has been charged with serious money laundering crimes in the wake of the Falcon funds scandal. The 60-year-old accused man has, among other things, had business with the international gold trading company Degussa in Zurich. There he buys in batches 6,800 Swiss gold coins and 30 gold bars of 250 g each. All to a value of SEK 22 million. The gold is later retrieved in Zurich and disappears without a trace.
– Gold is quite classic in money laundering. It is an item that can be transported fairly easily, it is secured and you can get turnover for it almost anywhere in the world, says prosecutor Jerker Asplund.
Several connections to Max Serwin
Falcon funds was a pension scandal that was exposed by Kalla fakta on TV4, where 21,000 pension savers lost more than one billion kroner. The ringleader Emil Amir Ingmansson, today known as Max serwin, is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence. But before he is imprisoned, according to the prosecutor, Serwin controls the now accused man via e-mail. And when the gold is retrieved in Zurich, there are several connections to Max Serwin.
– We see in the email that two people who are only mentioned by first name have retrieved the gold. And there the tracks end, says Jerker Asplund.
He confirms that there is circumstantial evidence linking the two people in Zurich to Max Serwin.
– There are circumstances that I don’t want to go into in more detail that point to this being an agent for Max Serwin. I don’t want to say more than that, because preliminary investigations are still ongoing.
Luxury watches, paintings and apartment on the Spanish sunny coast
Luxury watches worth SEK 400,000, a range rover, paintings and an apartment on the Spanish sunny coast are now frozen assets for the accused couple. They deny any crime. But if they are closed, it is SEK 14 million that can be returned to the savers in the Falcon funds. The missing gold is not expected to be found by the Ecocrime Authority.
– We tried to get a specially trained dog for the house searches that were carried out in this case. But there are actually no golden dogs. And the gold can be just about anywhere in the world, says prosecutor Jerker Asplund.
The verdict in the money laundering case is expected on April 8.