Ukraine volunteer boss convicted for migrant crisis corruption

Daniel Kindberg, former chairman of Östersunds FK, is convicted of gross bribery. This is confirmed by the Court of Appeal for Lower Norrland. The penalty is set at one year and eight months in prison.

The corruption for which Kindberg is convicted stems from the so-called migrant crisis in 2015. Some authorities took advantage of the crisis to profit themselves, and Kindberg was one of them.

Parallel to his role as club chairman, Kindberg was also on the board of the municipal housing company Östersundshem. This was at a time when the municipality urgently needed to provide housing for all newly arrived migrants.

Attefall houses for migrants

The company Pilgrimsta hus was commissioned by the municipal housing company to build 150 so-called Attefall houses, to be used as migrant housing. A contract worth tens of millions of kronor.

But the contract was not free. Pilgrimsta hus paid out millions to consulting firms, which in turn funneled money to two companies in which Daniel Kindberg was the majority owner.

In this way, the municipal bigwig ensured filling his own pockets with taxpayer money. In total, it amounted to more than 5.5 million kronor.

In September this year, Östersund District Court convicted Kindberg of gross bribery; a verdict that the Court of Appeal now confirms. However, he is acquitted of the charges of aiding and abetting gross accounting offenses and aiding and abetting aggravated tax evasion, and the penalty is reduced to one year and eight months in prison.

Two co-defendants are also convicted of similar offenses by the Court of Appeal, while one of those convicted by the district court is completely acquitted by the Court of Appeal.

Ukraine volunteer Swedish

In May this year, Daniel Kindberg traveled to Ukraine. According to his own statement, it was to join the Ukrainian army and fight against Russia. He has a military background as a professional officer and served in the so-called Bosnia battalions in the 1990s.

After the Court of Appeal also sentenced him to prison, the 58-year-old Östersund figure plans to return to Ukraine. He tells Aftonbladet, “I do not intend to evade anything here at home, but I hope to be there until we have won the war.”

Not detained

Despite the prison sentence against Daniel Kindberg, he is at liberty and can leave Sweden if he wishes. Chief Prosecutor Johan Lindmark at the National Unit against Corruption has not requested his detention.

“These are very old crimes committed in 2014, 15, and 16. I have not had the case before, so no court had agreed to detain him,” he tells Samnytt.

I’m thinking that he has so clearly gone to the media and said that he intends to leave the country after the verdict?

“Yes, I understand.”

“Previously, you could actually evade a prison sentence until it was prescribed. But now they have removed that type of prescription, so that you can stay away for many years and then when you suddenly come back, you simply have to serve the sentence,” says Johan Lindmark.

Daniel Kindberg has said that he intends to appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court.