Bengt Ågerup is a medical entrepreneur who became a multi-billionaire on the anti-wrinkle drug Restylane. When he sold the successful company Q-Med in 2011, the profits were hidden in tax havens, out of reach of the Swedish Tax Agency and the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
Mission Investigate has mapped Bengt Ågerup's business dealings. With the help of documents from the Cyprus leak, it is revealed that Ågerup has shut down several of its old letterbox companies, which the Swedish Tax Agency has investigated, and moved large assets to Cyprus.
SEK 1 billion to letterbox companies
Three letterbox companies with links to Bengt Ågerup are found: Dimio Holding, which owns his Swedish investment company. Iremo Limited – which owns a trotting business in Sweden. And then a hitherto completely unknown company, Ipato Limited.
The money in Cyprus has gone directly from the Bengt Ågerup Trust, a form of foundation in the Bahamas, and from another foundation that can be linked to his ex-wife. It's about over a billion kronor. Bengt Ågerup believes that he has given away control of the assets in the foundation, an arrangement that means that Swedish authorities cannot access the money.
Links to personal finances
But new information from the leak shows possible links to Bengt Ågerup's private finances, including large transfers to his ex-wife in connection with a divorce.
The new information is of interest to the bankruptcy trustee Patrik Kalman, who is appointed by the district court to trace and collect Ågerup's assets – both in Sweden and abroad.
"There's a lot here I didn't know about. It shows a direct link between the trust that Bengt Ågerup established in 2002 and a company that I previously did not know about. Here I get information in black and white about the ownership structure attributable to the Cypriot companies, says Patrik Kalman in the program "The Cyprus Leak".
"Nothing I Can Tell You"
Kalman does not want to comment on whether the new information can give him the opportunity to freeze Ågerup's assets in Cyprus.
"Unfortunately, there is nothing that I can tell you now, as I am still working on the assignment.
Bengt Ågerup does not want to be interviewed but replies in an email that he opposes the Tax Agency's decision on taxation and that business events and transactions within the group can therefore not be attributed to him personally.
Read Ågerup's response in its entirety below.