Bagger’s partner pleads not guilty
As he was charged with aiding fraud in the amount of 266 million kroner, Mikael Ljungman denied involvement in the Bagger case The Swedish business partner in the Bagger fraud case pled not guilty to charges of being an accessory...
The Swedish business partner in the Bagger fraud case pled not guilty to charges of being an accessory to fraud and was held on remand by the lower court in Lyngby yesterday.
Mikael Ljungman was extradited to Denmark from Sweden on Monday where he was being held on an international arrest warrant. His business partner, Stein Bagger, was previously sentenced to seven years imprisonment for one of the largest fraud and document forgery cases in Denmark.
During Bagger’s trial, he pinpointed Ljungman as his accomplice and said the Swede was well aware of the fraud. The 46-year-old was remanded to custody in absentia in March and the international warrant led to his arrest in Sweden a month later.
Ljungman had denied the charges of helping to defraud companies of at least 266 million kroner. But the Bagger case, as it is now known, saw the former CEO of IT Factory admit to fraud in the amount of 831 million kroner, of which he said Ljungman took a substantial cut.
Meanwhile, Bagger will not be able to serve his sentence in an open prison, unlike others who were found guilty of serious economic crime.
Criminals who are sentenced to more than five years imprisonment are usually housed in closed state prisons, but there have been cases of those found guilty of economic crime serving their sentences of six or seven years in open prisons.
According to B.T. newspaper, Bagger will be housed in the Vridsløselille state prison due to his ties to the criminal biker gang environment. Vridsløselille has a special wing that holds criminal members of the Hells Angels biker gang and their support group AK81.
It is unknown if Bagger will be housed in the biker wing or if he will remain in isolation as he did during his trial. When he was initially taken into custody in Vestre Prison he was attacked by another inmate. No motive has been discovered for the attack but it was suspected that it was linked to Bagger’s close ties to leading Hells Angels member Brian Sandberg, who Bagger employed as a bodyguard.