This case, involving a chain of Muslim-Somali pre-schools, was originally classified also as a terrorism finance case.
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The woman in charge of several suburban Stockholm pre-schools was sentenced on Monday by the Solna District Court to five years in prison for defrauding the city of Stockholm out of millions of kronor.
Three men were also sentenced in the same case for helping the woman carry out the tax fraud.
The woman was convicted of serious bookkeeping crime and serious tax crime. The sentence also includes a 10-year ban on the woman heading a commercial enterprise.
Others involved in the crime received prison sentences of varying lengths, with the longest being three and a half years.
The woman owns a company which operates several pre-schools in Rinkeby and Tensta suburbs, northwest of Stockholm. For several years the company received large contributions of public funds from the city of Stockholm in order to offer childcare.
She took out a total of 18.5 million kronor ($3.1 million) from the company as unreported income for herself and to use as funds eventually sent to Dubai and Somalia.
The scheme allowed the woman to withhold 13 million kronor in tax payments from the state.
Fake invoices were used to keep authorities from discovering the withdrawals.
The money was transferred overseas from the woman's company by various informal banking networks, known as hawalas, based in Rinkeby.
According to the court, the woman's crimes were cunning, systematic, and are worthy of a very strong sentence.
The court also said the woman manipulated the company's invoices by 15.5 million kronor and gave the impression that the company had costs equal to that amount.
Source: The Local (English)
See also: Stockholm: Protest against pre-school closure, Sweden: Arrests in terror financing probe
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