Cold facts have today revealed how high representatives within the Christian Democrats are trying to find loopholes in the law on accounting for party contributions. In connection with the disclosure, party secretary Peter Kullgren published a post on Facebook in which he claims that the party made a decision not to give contact or bank details to the businessman who had contact with the party on behalf of Kalla fakta.
The claim is misleading. The editors have saved all communications with the Christian Democrats, and there it is clear that it is the businessman who worked on behalf of Kalla fakta and not KD who cut off contact.
The giver of cold facts will meet the Christian Democrats’ deputy party secretary Robert Lisborg on April 5 in the Riksdag. The first time Kalla fakta’s donor tried to withdraw from the donation was on May 3.
The email conversations
In an email, the donor writes that “I would like to proceed with my annual donation but have not heard anything from you. But I have discussed what I should do with others and then the discussion has ended up in the fact that the world situation probably demands that I send the money to Ukraine this year. I wish you the best of luck in the election and keep my fingers crossed for a change of government!”
Deputy party secretary Robert Lisborg then responded as follows in an email the same day:
Hello *****,
Thank you for your message. I’ve been thinking about the best way to do this. I had intended to contact you this week to reason about what information about you you want to share with each person on the list. We can talk about it tomorrow if you wish to proceed.
Greetings
Robert Lisborg
The giver of cold facts writes a last letter to the party on May 12 in which he clearly withdraws:
Hello again ****
This has dragged on a little longer than it was supposed to. I understand that it takes time to collect such a thing as bank account information, but in the meantime I have been thinking and also discussing with those closest to me. I will send the money to Ukraine this year and not make political donations, so you can cancel the collection of account information.
The donor receives in response that it was a time-consuming task to communicate with the candidates:
Hello ****,
We are very grateful for your ambitions to support candidates with donations in the way you wish to do. However, doing so without wanting to be public limits the possibilities properly as you know. Communicating with the candidates you wanted information about has also proven to be a time-consuming task as we cannot email these people without it becoming a public document (as they are politicians). Your name can then be revealed by requesting the email. Unfortunately, the difficulties are piled on top of each other, as you probably noticed even with your contacts with M. The time is short until the upcoming elections and it is good to look at the issue before the upcoming elections so that everything is correct according to the rules of the Gift Act. Wise choice to donate to Ukraine who needs it so much right now! We keep in touch! All the best and have a nice weekend!
Peter Kullgren also writes on Facebook after the review that the donor came up with proposals that were in the border country for current regulations. Cold facts’ donor had a wish to remain anonymous, which was part of the assignment, and the suggestions on how the donor could circumvent the accounting requirement then came from the Christian Democrats.
Hear Kalla fakta’s reporter tell more about the review, in the player above.
Cold facts have borrowed the identity of two businessmen with a considerable fortune. One of the men felt comfortable making the call himself and that the other wanted us to make the call for him. We have called the switchboard of the Riksdag parties to offer between half and a full million kroner for this year’s election campaign.
All parties have been given the same conditions.
With the help of secret recordings and hidden cameras, we have documented how parties handle the situation when a donor wants a large gift to be anonymous, something the law prohibits.
We have also offered money to two parliamentary candidates from each party. They have been chosen based on how likely we think they are to run a by-election campaign, and where possible at least one candidate has had links to each party’s youth federation. We have compared what they say with how it sounds in secret conversations with anonymous donors.
We have not offered any services in return, as the offer alone could constitute a bribery offence.