Prosecutor Demands Prison for Alexander Ernstberger in Fraud Case

The prosecutor is demanding prison time for Alexander Ernstberger. The former Allra profile is charged with serious fraud against creditors in connection with gifting half of his luxury villa in Lidingö to his wife.

– He acted intentionally, said Deputy Prosecutor Markus Hellsten at the Stockholm District Court on Wednesday morning. The defense countered, arguing that the entire indictment should be dismissed.

The former CEO of the pension company Allra, Alexander Ernstberger, has spent four days in court over the affair where he gifted half of his luxury villa to his wife Tina just days before their marriage in December 2020, along with a 75 million kronor dividend from his now-bankrupt company S2 Invest.

Both transactions occurred between the district court's acquittal in the Allra case and the six-year prison sentence in the Svea Court of Appeal.

The charges in the indictment are serious fraud against creditors, alternatively negligence against creditors.

In both cases, the core question is when Alexander Ernstberger is considered to have become insolvent or when he should have realized he was heading towards insolvency.

At the root was a claim from the Pensions Authority from May 2012, where different opinions were presented during the trial about when the Pensions Authority's claim became due. Was it in May 2012? Or after the Court of Appeal's conviction when the Supreme Court did not take up the case, and the judgment became final.

– It was not on Alexander's radar that he would be convicted in the Court of Appeal, said Ernstberger's defense attorney, Olle Brickstad, who argued that the charges should be dismissed entirely when he pleaded in the case in courtroom 27, the same room where the Allra case played out in the district court.

Brickstad also pointed out that his client had consulted several experts before gifting half of the Lidingö villa to his wife.

Prosecutor's Prison Demand

Deputy Prosecutor Markus Hellsten had a clear line when he concluded his part of the process. The message: Alexander Ernstberger should be sentenced to prison.

– The penalty in this case should be assessed as one year and ten months in prison. And then no other penalty than prison can be considered.

Regarding the assessment of Tina Ernstberger's potential crime when she received the gift, the prosecutor was more lenient in his judgment.

– As the evidence stands now, it is proven that she received the gift. Unlike Alexander Ernstberger, she was not aware that the basis for the damages was important. But she was present at the bank and received information about the recovery rules, and she knew there was a claim for damages to be addressed in the Court of Appeal, he said.

The prosecutor requested that Tina Ernstberger be sentenced to a conditional sentence with community service.

Both Alexander Ernstberger and his wife have denied committing any crime during the trial when he transferred half the villa as a gift.

Tina Ernstberger's defense attorney, Conny Cedermark, referred to common sense in his plea before the court, arguing for Tina Ernstberger's acquittal.

– You must ask yourselves if it is reasonable that several previously unpunished people would simultaneously and suddenly decide to commit a crime. Why would they risk their careers, he said, referring to the involved lawyers who helped with the gift deed and the auditor who approved the 75 million kronor dividend from Ernstberger's private company S2 Invest.

– This unreasonableness that a large number of previously unpunished people would commit a crime, that unreasonableness should naturally be considered when you ponder the reasonableness of the prosecutor's crime hypothesis.

The two lawyers defending the accused auditor and lawyer also requested that their client be acquitted.