Mikael Ljungman

Mikael Ljungman (born November 25, 1963) is a Swedish politician, lawyer and businessman. He was 2009–2010 convicted of fraud and false accounting related to his business activities, for which he served a two-year prison term.[1] He is also known for his association and involvement with two high-profile tech failures: the game console manufacturer Gizmondo in 2005 and IT Factory in 2008. After his release from prison, Ljungman became active in the Christian Democrats legal policy network.[2] He was selected as a Christian Democrats parliamentary candidate for the 2014 Swedish elections, as number 32 on their Stockholm candidate list.[3]

Mikael Ljungman
Born (1963-11-25) November 25, 1963
Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
NationalitySwedish
EducationLawyer, Political Scientist
OccupationBusinessman

Education

Mikael Ljungman has a Masters of Laws (LL.M.)[4] from Stockholm University. He also studied political science.[2]

Association with Gizmondo

Ljungman's company 3P PreForm Marketing and Research began performing research and development work for Gizmondo Europe in 2003[5][6] and was paid $7.6 million.[7] After Gizmondo Europe's bankruptcy in early 2006, the liquidators had outstanding questions about Ljungman and his company's involvement with Gizmondo Europe Ltd; they were perfectly satisfied with Ljungman's answers.[6] In May 2008, Carl Freer bought Gizmondo Europe's intellectual property rights.[8] Ljungman worked with Freer on the relaunch of the Gizmondo, with Freer calling him his "co-pilot".[6] He traveled to China in early 2008 to arrange manufacturing,[9] a contract purported to be worth $300M.[6] The relaunch of Gizmondo never materialized.[10]

Conviction for false accounting

Ljungman was arrested on October 19, 2004, but released shortly thereafter pending trial.[11] Ljungman was found guilty of false accounting and tax evasion on January 26, 2009. Ljungman initially received a two-year prison sentence;[12] which was reduced to 10 months on appeal after the tax evasion charges were dismissed. The sentence included disqualification from running a company in Sweden for five years, which was reduced to three years starting from 2007 after the successful appeal.[13] Ljungman's appeal went to the supreme court[14] where it was denied[15] and he was imprisoned in late April 2009.[16]

IT Factory scandal

In December 2008 Danish company IT Factory went bankrupt revealing systematic financial fraud. Ljungman was linked to IT Factory's CEO Stein Bagger,[17] who went missing four days before the company's collapse was publicly announced.[18] Bagger fled from Dubai to the United States and eventually surrendered to police in Los Angeles, where he was found to have Ljungman's car and to have used his credit card.

On January 9, 2009, the Deputy Attorney in charge of fraud cases in Denmark announced that they wanted to question Ljungman.[19] Danish police sent out an arrest warrant for Ljungman via Interpol. He was arrested by Swedish police in Norrköping where he had just started his ten-month sentence in an open prison and was extradited to Denmark on July 27, 2009.[20][21][22]

Danish media claimed that the Swedish police had found a fake leasing contract linking IT Factory with Xiop, a Swedish company where Ljungman had worked as Business Developer. This specific claim was denied by the Swedish prosecutor Yngve Rydberg.[19] Yngve Rydberg also said at the time there was no suspicion of Ljungman being involved in the crimes being investigated in Sweden.[23] On the first day of his trial Stein Bagger named Ljungman as his accomplice.[24]

On March 26, 2010, Ljungman was convicted of involvement in the IT Factory fraud in Denmark,[25] and was released under supervision in September 2013 after serving slightly less than half of a seven-year sentence.[26]

Ljungman denied involvement in Stein Bagger's fraud and appealed his sentence,[27] however as of the time of his supervised release, no successful appeal had been completed. Ljungman claimed he was interested in IT Factory's software PaaS,[28] that he and Media Power tried to buy when IT Factory was liquidated. The software was instead sold to a German company.[29]

In December 2012, Danish authorities recovered a portion of the money stolen from IT Factory from accounts in Hong Kong and Jersey belonging to Mikael Ljungman.[30]

Political activity

Shortly after he had served his prison term he was selected as a parliamentary candidate for the Christian Democrats in the 2014 Swedish elections as well as one of their representatives in the municipal elections and county council elections.[3]

References
  1. "Six-year sentence for Ljungman". March 26, 2010.
  2. "Bagger-makker kommer ud af fængslet".
  3. "Känd brottsling på KD:s riksdagslista" [Known criminal on KD's parliamentary list]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). June 15, 2014.
  4. "Ballot Papers Election 2014".
  5. Olle Blomkvist (December 22, 2005). "Gizmondos svenska partner åtalas". Realtid.se. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016.
  6. "Carl Freer: Gizmondo arrives in late 2008".
  7. "TIGER TELEMATICS INC – TGTL Quarterly Report (10-Q)".
  8. "Gizmondo Liquidators Wishes Carl Freer Good Speed".
  9. "Omskrivet företag satsar på nytt". Archived from the original on August 9, 2011.
  10. "The Android gaming platform that never was: Gizmondo 2". January 16, 2011.
  11. "1,6 miljarder kronor försvann från bolaget – på ett halvår".
  12. Johansson, Sara (January 26, 2009). "Mikael Ljungman fick fängelse" (in Swedish). Realtid.se. Retrieved January 29, 2009. I dag kom domen mot Carl Freers kompanjon Mikael Ljungman. Han fick 10 månaders fängelse och näringsförbud.
  13. "Mikael Ljungman fick fängelse".
  14. Johansson, Sara (February 26, 2009). "Mikael Ljungman överklagar hovrättens dom" (in Swedish). Realtid.se. Åklagaren har inte kunnat styrka brottet. Det menar Mikael Ljungmans advokat Leif Gustafsson.
  15. Johansson, Sara (March 18, 2009). "Klart i dag: Ljungman tvingas till fängelse" (in Swedish). Realtid.se.
  16. Bendtsen, Simon (April 27, 2009). "Baggers partner anholdt" (in Danish). Business dk. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009. "Jeg tror, at han netop var startet med at afsone de 10 måneder. Han er så nu blevet overført til arresten, og så må vi se, hvornår vi kan få ham udleveret til Danmark," siger vicestatsadvokat Per Justesen.
  17. "Svensk forretningsmand hjalp Stein Bagger i USA". Archived from the original on December 11, 2008.
  18. Johansson, Sara (March 17, 2009). "Dansk polis är beredda att efterlysa Ljungman" (in Swedish). Realtid.se. Den danska polisen har ännu inte lyckats förhöra Mikael Ljungman, som misstänks vara delaktig i Stein Bagger-härvan.
  19. "Dansk polis vill förhöra Mikael Ljungman".
  20. Erik Wiman (March 31, 2009). "Den svenske företagaren och miljonären Mikael Ljungman gäckar polisen". Aftonbladet. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  21. Af Simon Bendtsen 27. april 2009, 12:03. "Baggers partner anholdt – Digital". Berlingske Tidende. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  22. "Bagger's partner pleads not guilty". The Copenhagen Post. July 28, 2009. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011.
  23. "Åklagare gjorde razzia hos Mikael Ljungman-bolag".
  24. "Bagger points finger at Swedish partner". The Copenhagen Post. June 10, 2009. Archived from the original on November 13, 2011.
  25. "Ljungman anker dommen på seks års fængsel". Fyenske. March 26, 2010.
  26. "Bagger-makker kommer ud af fængslet". Berlingske Tidende. September 20, 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  27. "Ljungman anker dommen pl' seks l'rs fc'ngsel". Fyens Stiftstidende. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  28. Johansson, Sara (January 26, 2009). "Vi funderar på att överklaga domen" (in Swedish). Realtid.se. Utredningen stödjer helt enkelt inte att han har gjort de brott som åklagaren påstår.
  29. "Tysk køber af IT Factorys software. Mikael Ljungman fik nej".
  30. "Stolen millions confiscated from Bagger accomplice". The Copenhagen Post. 2.3 million kroner, hidden by Mikael Ljungman in accounts in Jersey and Hong Kong, are set to return to Denmark
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