Nine held in Sweden on suspected insider trading in Fortnox and Tethys Oil

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish police apprehended nine people on Tuesday on suspicion of gross insider stock market trading in 2024 and 2025 ahead of the publication of takeover offers for two companies listed on the Stockholm bourse, the Economic Crime Authority said.

The suspected insider trades were made in the shares of Tethys Oil, which was subject to a takeover bid in September of last year, and fintech Fortnox, which was bought after an offer in March this year, an agency spokesperson said.

The agency said several persons with mutual connections repeatedly traded large sums in a coordinated manner, based on what it suspects was leaked information on expected bids.

“It is insider trading on a level we have barely seen before,” Prosecutor Jonas Myrdal said in a statement, adding that Tuesday’s police action followed a long investigation and included the seizure of electronic devices.

A spokesperson for Tethys Oil said the company had no indication or reason to believe that the matter concerned any of its current or former employees.

A spokesperson for Fortnox, which was bought by a consortium of main owner Olof Hallrup’s investment vehicle First Kraft and private equity firm EQT, said Fortnox had not been contacted by the police in connection with the investigation.

A spokesperson for EQT said the firm had also not been contacted by the police on the matter. First Kraft could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chinese group Hainan Mining and its Australia-based unit Roc Oil, which bought Tethys Oil, did not immediately reply to requests for comment outside of regular business hours.

Tethys Oil and Fortnox were delisted in January and July, respectively.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik, Bernadette Baum, Susan Fenton, William Maclean)