One of Sweden’s most successful football agents has been arrested and suspected of serious financial crime.
After nearly four years of investigations, he was acquitted.
– Suspicions cannot be substantiated by the available evidence, says Public Prosecutor Henrik Wager.
In the spring of 2019, the agent of a Swedish player who was involved in several of Allsvenskan’s biggest transfers of the 2000s was arrested.
The Ecocrime body, EBM, writes:
“On May 21, a person connected to the field of the player’s agent in football was arrested by personnel of EBM in Gothenburg. The person was arrested by the Gothenburg Court on Friday on probable cause on suspicion of serious tax offences, serious accounting offences, and serious economic money laundering.”
Now Sportbladet can reveal that the player’s agent has, after nearly four years of investigation involving authorities and legal assistance in several other countries, both inside and outside Europe, been cleared of the charges.
“case closed”
The information that the preliminary investigation had been closed was confirmed by Henrik Fager, chief public prosecutor at Ecocrime.
– Yesterday I dropped the preliminary investigation on the grounds that suspicions, among other things, of gross tax fraud could not be proven on the materials of the investigation at hand, Fager told Sportbladet.
Are there any other criminal charges pending against the agent or anyone else in connection with this case?
– With a closing decision, the order is closed. Hence there are no doubts left.
The agent was arrested and charged with serious financial crimes after the Swedish Tax Agency determined in 2018 that he had received 17.4 million SEK that had not been declared.
Of this amount, SEK 8.3 million came from a total of nine elite Swedish footballers. One of them, the star of the national team, paid the agent nearly five million kroner, which he did not announce.
The player and agent claimed that the transfer was made as a contribution and charity to various youth projects in vulnerable areas.
The Tax Agency did not believe the explanations and charged the agent with an additional SEK 6.8 million in tax.
All nine players had at one point represented the same Allsvenskan main club.
The tax decision and investigation conducted by the Tax Authority were the basis for the agent’s arrest and criminal suspicions against him.
During the investigation, several football stars at the highest level and several Allsvenskan football directors at some of Sweden’s biggest clubs were heard as witnesses.
But after nearly four years of investigation, the investigation against the client was closed. This is after the Public Prosecutor said on several occasions that criminal suspicions had been strengthened.
– It can take a long time to process matters of international relevance. This means that the suspect has to live with the suspicions around him throughout that period and this is of course unfortunate, especially when in this case the initial investigation ends up being closed for lack of evidence, says Henrik Fager.
Is it not reaching a decision to prosecute?
– Whether it was a failure or not, I will leave it unsaid. Sometimes it’s very difficult to avoid long processing times, says Wager.