According to the expert, there is a harmful culture in the financial management of companies that hides crimes.
Organized crime nested in Sweden generates hundreds of millions of crowns, i.e. tens of millions of euros, in criminal profits for its perpetrators every year.
This is what the crime prevention expert of the Swedish Economic Crime Agency (Ekobrottsmyndigheten) says Sara Persson In an interview with Svenska .
According to him, organized crime has become more complex and the importance of economic crimes has increased. The share of the traditional drug trade in the activities of organized crime has decreased and has been replaced by, for example, tax fraud.
Financial crimes can also be used to make use of funds obtained from the drug trade.
According to Persson, criminal groups have started to operate in care and nursing companies. For example, Kopla gets a contract for the health checks of immigrants and refugees, but the work is performed at a low level.
When the matter starts to be investigated, the company is forced into bankruptcy. Criminals have also set up companies that give vaccines, but the vaccines have not been given.
According to Persson, the problem is serious. It not only takes huge sums of government money, but also weakens crisis preparedness when some health companies are not up to the task.
“There are ways, but they are not used”
According to Sara Persson, the resources available to prevent economic crime in Sweden are small, but they are used effectively.
The problem is that people in the financial administration of companies don’t always feel that they have to be on the lookout for crimes as well.
– There is often a culture in the administration that “it’s not my job to investigate a crime”. I think that everyone who handles public money should keep an eye on the fact that the money does not end up with criminals, Persson states.
The Financial Crimes Authority receives the most reports from the tax and bankruptcy administrations, in which case it is already late in terms of supervision. The money is already gone.
Warning signs for the monitoring authorities are, for example, that the company does not pay taxes and fees, or that it does not have registered employees. This may indicate the use of undeclared labor, advises Persson.