When TV4’s Kalla Fakta revealed the Falcon funds mess, it was hard to believe that it would have such big consequences as it did. Six months later, it was clear that 21,000 savers had been cheated by unscrupulous pranksters. And more than a billion kroner was gone.
Subsequently, the principals Max Serwin and Mark Bishop have been sentenced to long prison terms. And the pension system was fundamentally overhauled to prevent a repeat of the Falcon disaster. But very little care has been shown to the citizens who were actually affected in the scandal.
TV4 Nyheterna has previously told about Daniel Edencrona, who had his money moved to Falcon funds via a falsified transfer form. The pension authority used an automatic loading service – and as long as something was written in the signature box on the form, the money was moved.
Bombed in forms
This used Falcon funds unscrupulously and bombed in forms. 7000 Swedes were moved (as far as we know) to the joke funds in Malta and had parts of their pension capital stolen.
– It was just lucky that they didn’t put half of the Swedish people in Falcon funds, said the Pensions Agency’s head of department Rasmus Bjälkesson, when I interviewed him in the book Det stora pensionsrånet.
When Daniel Edencrona now goes to court tomorrow with the help of the Center for Justice, a central question is put to the fore: what can we as citizens expect from the state?
Pension is not just social insurance. It is also a forced saving. We cannot say no to money being withdrawn each month to the pension system. What responsibility does the state have for that money being taken care of? That villains don’t just steal?
The pension authority is naive
It is obvious that the Pensions Authority was naive when choosing a security system. The forms were extremely easy to forge and submit. And we also know that the Falcon fund was not the only joker fund that took advantage of this.
Many of the victims in the Falcon funds never had a choice. They were moved to the joke funds whether they wanted to or not. Despite all the nice words from politicians after the pension scandals, there has always been an uncomfortable silence about compensation for those affected.
– We will decide on that question later, said the then Minister of Social Security Ardalan Shekarabi (S) in repeated interviews.
The fourth in never, I guess is the date the answer will come. But several questions remain after the Falcon funds scandal. How bad of a system can the state have? And how much can we demand that the citizens take care of themselves? These are important questions. And it is good that they are now being tried in court.