STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A Swedish court on Wednesday found 16 people guilty of illegal insider trading linked to the 2021 acquisition offer for then-listed grocery company ICA Gruppen AB, sentencing some to prison for up to three years and two months.
A group of 10 ICA store owners and eight relatives and associates stood trial accused of buying shares despite having knowledge of a pending offer, profiting in some cases several million crowns, prosecutors have said.
The Stockholm district court said in a statement it had concluded that the convicted knew about the offer in advance and thus were able to make large profits from share trades.
The suspicion of insider trading emerged after shares in ICA rose ahead of a joint takeover bid for the group from store owners association ICA-handlarnas Forbund and pension fund AMF in November 2021.
“Several of the defendants are ICA retailers,” the court said. “Their share trading has been based on insider information about an upcoming bid for ICA Gruppen and not on their own analysis or experience.”
The persons found guilty must also pay the equivalent of profits made from the illegal share trades, in total around 16 million Swedish crowns ($1.53 million).
Two of the 18 defendants on trial were acquitted by the court.
($1 = 10.4854 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik)