The court announced on Wednesday, January 25, 2022 that the former CEO of the Swedish bank Swedbank, Birgitte Bonnesen, has been acquitted of charges of fraud and of disclosing inside information.

The Stockholm court made its decision public four years after the start of a money laundering scandal involving Swedbank. Indeed, in 2020, the Swedish banking regulatory authorities fined the bank some 360 million euros and required it to comply with anti-money laundering laws. Bonnesen was prosecuted for “intentionally or through aggravated negligence (...) disseminating misleading information about the bank's measures to prevent, detect, prevent and report suspected money laundering” in Estonia. She was facing two years in prison, but denied all charges.

In early 2019, revelations announced the existence of documents according to which high-risk and suspicious transactions, totalling some 40 billion crowns (3.8 billion euros), had failed in the Baltic states, especially Estonia, from Swedbank accounts. These revelations led to a fall in the bank's share price and led to the dismissal of Birgitte Bonnesen.