The Allra case in Sweden has taken another twist with news that Stockholm district prosecutor Thomas Herz has requested that Mattias Bengtsson be placed on remand in relation to the alleged role he played through his links to Oak Capital, which in turn has been linked to the scandal that saw billions of SEK lost to retail long term savers invested in Allra funds via the Swedish Pensions Agency’s PPM platform.
The request follows decisions by the Stockholm District Court in mid-October, which resulted in Allra chief executive Alexander Ernstberger and Oak Capital chief executive Olle Markusson being detained on remand (see below).
Financial daily Dagens Industri reports on 6 November that Bengtsson, according to company documents, was in early 2013 the next biggest owner of Oak Capital. The biggest owner was Ewran Mersin, who is also being sought by authorities.
on 27 October, daily newspaper Expressen reported that Ewran Mersin, former head of Allra’s Dubai subsidiary, had been remanded in his absence as of 23 October. The paper reported that the ongoing police investigation suggested that he may have emptied both his Swedish company and Stockholm flat of assets, and that his last known address was in Dubai.
The Dubai International Finance Centre lists “Evran Mersin, Djehiche Boualem, Ernstberger Edward Alexander, Erik Christer Swaretz” as directors of Allra Capital Markets Limited (https://www.difc.ae/public-register/allra-international-limited ).
On 16 October, Allra published a press release in which it noted: “No company in the Allra group can comment on the events that are now being highlighted because of judicial investigations directed towards individuals. Naturally, the Allra group will contributed to the investigations as far as possible, but will not contribute with public speculation. We have high hopes that the judicial process will contribute to clarify what has happened and about potential crimes that have been committed.”
On 14 October, the scandal took its first political scalp, with news that the government had withdrawn its nomination of Thomas Bodström to become the new governor of the County of Stockholm. However, his previous role on the board of Allra undermined the nomination, particularly after other political parties than the Social Democrats, to which he belongs, made their objections clear. The government announced that he would not receive any compensation following its decision. (http://www.regeringen.se/pressmeddelanden/2017/10/regeringen-upphaver-sitt-beslut-att-utse-thomas-bodstrom-till-landshovding-i-stockholms-lan/ )
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