A 47-year-old former consultant to Scania and Volvo has been sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of selling Scania trade secrets to Russia
Swedish court documents reveal the man had previously worked as a consultant for both Volvo cars in 2016-2017 and from Februray 2018 until his arrest in early 2019 for Swedish truck maker Scania.
The man was apprehended while meeting with a Russian embassy official at a restaurant in central Stockholm with an amount of cash in his possession which he admitted to receiving from the Russian embassy official and which the Swedish court concluded was payment for the espinoage.
The court says the man transfered secret information from Volvo and Scania onto USB storage devices which he handed to the Russian embassy official knowing the information would benefit Russia, which the court says is a trigger for the charge of espionage.
“To be convicted of espionage, it is required that Sweden’s security can be damaged if the information benefits foreign powers,” the court says in a statement.
“The district court has ruled that this is the case with regard to the information that the man obtained from Scania, while it has not been proven that this is the case with regard to the information from Volvo.”
The man, whose occupation is listed as ‘civil engineer’, has denied the crime.