A Swedish car dealer was buying cars from the russian embassy

The sanctions prohibit trade with the russian federation without special permits, which the car company did not have.

As part of the case, a representative of the car company is currently being prosecuted for breaching international sanctions. The company paid 415,000 kroner for three cars: two Toyota Avensis and one Ford Mondeo.

The payment was not made directly to the russian Embassy, but to a suspected shell company, which then transferred the money to accounts abroad. According to the indictment, this was an attempt to conceal the purchase of the cars and circumvent the economic sanctions imposed on russia due to the war in Ukraine.

The man who acted as an intermediary in the car purchases was spotted, during a preliminary investigation into russian-speaking organised crime, visiting the russian embassy and driving one of their cars. He featured in an Ekot investigation, in which we were able to prove that the embassy was implicated in suspected money laundering via fictitious invoices issued to Swedish companies.

“Under the law, it is possible in special cases to apply for an exemption from sanctions, but the car dealership did not do so,” says Karolina Lindekrantz, a prosecutor at the National Bureau for Combating International and Organised Crime.

The accused car dealer denies the offence and claims that the purchase was a mistake and that he did not know the cars belonged to the embassy.

Source: Sveriges Radio