Appeals Court Upholds Aquittal Of Ericsson Execs In Tax Case

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

10 July 2008

The Svea Court of Appeal in Sweden has upheld the acquittals of all current and former Ericsson employees who faced charges of evasion of tax control, filed by the Swedish National Economic Crimes Bureau.

In a statement issued by the company following the judgment on Thursday, Henry Stenson, senior vice president and head of Corporate Communications, Ericsson, said:

"We are pleased that all the accused have had their acquittals upheld by the Svea Court of Appeal and that we now can leave all this behind.

"The criminal investigation that led to the indictments and, finally, to the decision to uphold the acquittals, started more than six years ago. However, we have at all times been of the firm belief that all the accused were innocent of the alleged evasions of tax control, and that belief has now been confirmed."

The accused were all acquitted of tax evasion by the Stockholm City Court in December 2006.

The charges alleged that three current and four former employees were involved in the tax evasion, including Ericsson's former head of strategy, Torbjorn Nilsson.

According to the prosecution, directors at Ericsson were engaged in "the serious obstruction of tax checks" stretching back to the late 1990s.

The directors were accused, with the help of false invoices, of siphoning off about SEK3.3bn (USD549mn) to foreign bank accounts.

Prosecutors also accused them of manipulating accounts to mislead the tax authorities.

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