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Comment by hjalle | Hacker News Reader

The whole Kreuger empire rise and fall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Kreuger) is pretty interesting, but it was still a loan. He did the same thing to plenty of countries, the largest being Germany at $125m.

I've not heard about that bribe, would be interesting to read more about it. You got any more information about that?

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There's this article from 2005 (http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-arhiva-1235758-restituirea-dator...) that mentions the name of the Swedish official, it's in Romanian, Google Translate can help.

Ah, he wasn't a Swedish (government) official but a executive for the Swedish company ABB - the debt collector.

He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and got a 3 year ban on business activity for embezzlement, tax fraud and accounting fraud.

So much for a government official getting a slap on the wrist.

Thanks! Had to take a look at this and just a ZZBop mentioned he got sentenced to prison, but as I understand not really because of bribing as that was just a cover up for himself.

Apparently it was Fallenius himself who in court told that the money he took from ABB was going to be used as a bribe, but the court did not agree and sentenced him for tax fraud instead. See http://www.svd.se/abb-direktor-domd-till-fangelse , (Swedish)

Wow, if you check out the section 'Main companies controlled by Ivar Kreuger, c.1930', many of those are still here, some making millions in revenue.

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