Refugee millionaire Leif-Ivan Karlsson, 63, is wanted in custody
Photo: KRISTOFER SANDBERG
Leif-Ivan Karlsson was arrested in his villa “Örnberget”.
Photo: Anders Bjurström
The refugee millionaire was arrested in his palatial villa “Örnberget” in southern Stockholm on Wednesday.
Now he is wanted in custody on suspicion of two serious accounting offences, serious misconduct against creditors and serious aggravation of bankruptcy.
The prosecutor writes that the reason is because of the risk that he will influence the ongoing criminal investigation.
Leif-Ivan Karlsson is already one of eleven defendants in the tangle surrounding the scandal-ridden garbage company Think Pink and is suspected of environmental crimes and gross accounting violations.
However, the new suspicions are not connected to the Think Pink prosecution, writes the prosecutor in a press release.
– The man has previously been prosecuted in another case, but the crime for which he is now requested to be detained has no connection to that case. The criminal suspicions also do not apply to events outside Stockholm, says Maximillian Berg Molin.
Rich in refugee housing
Karlsson has called himself a “super entrepreneur” and has, among other things, shown off his luxurious life in TV3’s program “Karlssons”.
He built up his fortune primarily by starting asylum accommodations during the refugee crisis.
In two years, he invoiced the Migration Agency 140 million kroner and in 2016 and over three years his refugee company Kulthammar AB made a profit of a total of 23 million kroner.
At his accommodation, seven people were forced to sleep in a room of 20-25 square meters and queue for the toilets, as Expressen’s Michael Syrén revealed in a report in 2016.
He has since sold off the refugee business and unsuccessfully tried to sell his palace in southern Stockholm.
– The refugees were not grateful enough, he said in an interview with Expressen in 2017.
Prosecutor Maximillian Berg Molin refers to the press release and does not want to make any further comments at this time.
Expressen is looking for Leif-Ivan Karlsson’s lawyer.
