After SVT’s long-running “Assignment review” revealed in 2019 that Swedbank may have been used for money laundering in the Baltics, the bank’s then CEO Birgitte Bonnesen fired.
Three years later, Bonnesen was charged with spreading misleading information about the bank’s anti-money laundering measures in Estonia.
The indictment was not about whether the money laundering took place or not, but about Bonnesen’s communication about what she knew and didn’t know.
She was acquitted in the district court of several charges, including gross fraud, alternatively gross market manipulation, and disclosure of insider information. But the prosecution was taken further to the Court of Appeal.
During Tuesday, September 10, 2024, it became clear that the Svea Court of Appeal sentences Birgitte Bonnesen to prison for one year and three months for serious fraud.
Birgitte Bonnesen 2022. Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/SvD/TT.
Birgitte Bonnesen in a meeting about suspected money laundering in Swedbank 2018. Photo: Lars Pehrson/SvD/TT.
READ MORE: Jail for Swedbank’s former CEO
Who is Birgitte Bonnesen?
Birgitte Bonnesen was born in Denmark in 1956 and grew up on the Danish peninsula of Jutland. It would take until 1987 before Bonnesen made it to Sweden. In an interview with Expressen in 2016, she talked about the difficulties at the beginning.
– I didn’t understand Swedish at all and I initially wore jeans when everyone else wore blouses and suits, she then told the newspaper.
Bonnesen became employed at the bank in 1987. At the beginning of 2016, she became CEO, but according to herself, not much changed in her everyday life in connection with the new title.
– I have always been good at sleeping. That’s probably why I can handle quite a lot. I don’t stay up until two in the morning. Last night at 21.15 when the coffee after dinner with all our Sparbank CEOs was finished, I thought it was time to go home, she told Expressen in 2016.
Birgitte Bonnesen 2018. Photo: Lars Pehrson/SvD/TT.
Birgitte Bonnesen as summer host 2017. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT.
READ MORE: Swedbank’s mortgage customers may not negotiate their interest rate
Birgitte Bonnesen’s million rain as Swedbank’s CEO
According to information from the newspaper, Bonnesen earned SEK 5,497,600 the year before she took over as CEO, which gives a monthly salary of approximately SEK 458,133.
During her first year as CEO, she had a monthly salary of a full 1,100,000 kroner, that is, 13,200,000 kroner a year.
Bonnesen has the son Frederik Bonnesen who was born in 1990, which means that in 2024 he turned 34 years old.
– I prioritized being with Frederik and working and didn’t have a lot of hobbies. The times I had to travel for work, Frederik was with his father or my parents came here and looked after him. It happened that I was asked why I didn’t get a nanny or au pair, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to maximize the presence with Frederik, said Birgitte Bonnesen in the interview with The Express.
Birgitte Bonnesen in 2016, then CEO of Swedbank. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT. Birgitte Bonnesen in the Stockholm district court in 2022. Photo: Magnus Hjalmarson Neideman/SvD/TT.
DON’T MISS: The owner of Think Pink lived in luxury – that’s how Bella Nilsson lives now
Swedbank’s answer: Birgitte Bonnesen not part of Swedbank
The long-established bank, which was first established as Föreningssparbanken in 1997 and then changed its name to Swedbank AB in 2006, has made it clear that they do not want much to do with their former boss today.
“We have seen that Birgitte Bonnesen has been sentenced by the Svea Court of Appeal. Swedbank is not part of this legal process, it is exclusively about the bank’s former CEO, so we refrain from commenting on the verdict itself,” writes the bank’s press department in a comment to TT .
Swedbank’s head office in Sundbyberg. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT.
DON’T MISS: CEO of Riddermark Bil – this is Alexander Riddermark’s luxury life
What is Birgitte Bonnesen doing today?
When Bonnesen was fired from Swedbank, she did not leave the building empty-handed.
When she was forced to leave her position, she had an annual salary of approximately SEK 14.3 million. When she was fired in 2019, she was left with a so-called parachute of SEK 21.5 million, according to information from The evening paper.
Bonnesen lives today in Dalarö, in an 86 square meter apartment that she moved to in 2021, according to information from Ratsit.
Birgitte Bonnesen is sentenced to prison for one year and three months. Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/SvD/TT.