Islamists, Terror Financiers and Motorcycle Gangs Reportedly Received COVID-19 Aid in Sweden

The Swedish government's rescue package of $4.2 billion to help businesses during the pandemic has been hailed as the single largest investment in Swedish history. However, a subsequent review has identified numerous instances of the help landing in the wrong, and potentially dangerous, hands.

A joint investigation by the newspaper Expressen and Acta Publica has found gross abuse of the COVID-19 support administered by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.

The review indicated about 150 entrepreneurs who in various ways can be linked to organised crime or criminal gangs. Among others, terror financiers, Islamists, neo-Nazis and motorcycle gangs have received state support to the tune of hundreds of thousands of kronor.

One particular case involves an exchange office in Stockholm, which was suspected by the police to have been used to launder hundreds of millions of kronor in drug money. During a police raid, over ten million kronor (about $1 million) in cash was found on the premises.

Furthermore, a dozen of the entrepreneurs in the review are linked to Islamism. In Skåne County, a man in his 40s, whom the Security Police (Säpo) described as “being in contact with pro-violence Islamist milieus in Sweden” and “providing support to a terrorist organisation in Syria” received short-term support of over SEK 300,000 ($33,000). In Gothenburg, an entrepreneur in his 30s, whom the police singled out as a returnee from Syria received about SEK 140,000 ($15,500); his brother had died in the Daesh* “caliphate” in Iraq in 2016.

Yet another entrepreneur on the country's West Coast in 40s, who, according to the police, rented out his apartment as a gathering place for an Islamist network, sits as a deputy on the board of a taxi company that has been granted more than SEK 300,000 ($33,000).

The joint review also identified MC gangs such as Bandidos and Hells Angels picking up relief money as well.

Lastly, the list of entrepreneurs also includes people with links to extremism, including neo-Nazi organisations such as the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR).

Niklas Kjellberg, press manager at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, said that the authority makes the all necessary checks that it has legal support to perform.

“We check whether the representatives of the companies have a business ban or whether the companies have tax debts. We can not control other types of connections to different activities with the legal space we have today”, Kjellberg told Expressen.

The government's rescue package to alleviate the economic crisis during the pandemic has been hailed as the single largest investment in Swedish history at SEK 38 billion ($4.2 billion). A total of 76,000 companies have received state support, of which captains of industry such as Scania, Volvo Cars and SAS airline were the largest.

Sweden has previously received criticism, both external and internal, for its failure to crack down on organised crime, including ethnic gangs, and an overly lax handling of jihadi returnees, only a handful of whom were prosecuted.

State funds being provided to Islamists, due to a lack of proper control, is yet another perennial issue, which has raised concerns before. Among others, Sweden's leading terrorism researcher Magnus Ranstorp emphasised that great gains are to be made in financial crime, with very little risks.

* Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/"Islamic State") is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and other countries