An administrative mistake by the fraud office, Statsadvokaten for Særlig Økonomisk og International Kriminalitet (SØIK), has resulted in the prosecution collapsing in a massive stock market manipulation case, Berlingske reports.
A number of bank bosses and senior employees from EBH Bank, Morsø Sparekasse and Sparekassen Kronjylland were charged with stock market manipulation and fraud. They were found not guilty by the court in Hjørring.
The fraud office intended to appeal against the decision and prepared the necessary documents, but for an unknown reason they were not posted in time.
Bad postal procedures
The High Court of Western Denmark ruled today that the fraud office had not proved that it had handed over the documents to the postal service PostNord, and for this reason all of the defendants were definitively cleared.
In its judgement the court placed the blame squarely with the fraud office for its administrative failings.
“The office has had the opportunity to organise its working procedures relating to the postal collection so that it would be discovered if there was post that, despite an arrangement with PostNord to collect letters daily, wasn’t taken – either because there was no collection at all or because an employee at PostNord hasn’t taken the letter,” the court wrote in the judgement.
