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Saab reported to debt collectors

Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile has been been referred to the Swedish Enforcement Service (Kronofogdemyndigheten) for the collection of outstanding debts due by the administrative board of Västra Götaland county.

Saab reported to debt collectors

“We have this morning confirmed that no funds had been received on Monday. The matter is now being prepared to be sent to the Enforcement Service during the course of next week,” said Christina Danielsson at the board.

The demand dates back to a loan of 110.7 million kronor ($16.2 million) to the troubled carmaker to guarantee that Saab employees were paid in the first months following Saab’s bankruptcy filing in February of 2009.

Altogether, Västra Götaland lent Saab 305.5 million kronor in salary guarantees, excluding social fees.

According to the county, the amount it now wants repaid isn’t covered by Saab’s debt reduction agreement, which mandates that creditors write down 75 percent of money they are owed by Saab.

As Saab has not repaid the money, Västra Götaland plans to now seek the help of the Enforcement Agency to force the carmaker to cough up the cash.

But Saab has said it doesn’t accept the county’s demands, believing that the salary guarantees are in fact included in the debt reduction accord.

“We maintain our position that and challenge the demand,” Saab lawyer Kristina Geers told the TT news agency.

Saab argues that the entire salary guarantee should be included in the debt reduction accord. The remaining 25 percent of the sum, 27.7 million kronor, has already been paid by Saab to the Tax Agency and it is thus argued that all debts have been settled.

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CARS

Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court

Swedish car maker Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson and the firm's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have appeared in court in Vänersborg in west Sweden, accused of falsifying financial documents shortly before the company went bankrupt in 2011.

Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court
Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson. Photo: Karin Olander/TT
The pair are accused of falsifying the paperwork at the height of the Swedish company's financial difficulties at the start of the decade.
 
A third person – who has not been named in the Swedish media – is accused of assisting them by issuing false invoices adding up to a total of 30 million kronor ($3.55m).
 
According to court documents, the charges relate to the firm's business in Ukraine and the paperwork in question was signed just before former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson resigned.
 
Both Jonsson and Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have admitted signing the papers but denied knowledge of the Ukranian firm implicated in the case.
 
All three suspects deny all the charges against them.
 

Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers. Photo:  Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT
 
Saab filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2011, after teetering on the edge of collapse for nearly two years.
 
Chief prosecutor Olof Sahlgren told the court in Vänersborg on Wednesday that the alleged crimes took place in March 2011, when Saab was briefly owned by the Dutch company Spyker Cars.
  
It was eventually bought by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs), a Chinese-owned company after hundreds of staff lost their jobs.
 
The car maker, which is based in west Sweden, has struggled to resolve serious financial difficulties by attracting new investors since the takeover.
 
In October 2014 it announced it had axed 155 workers, close to a third of its workforce.
 
Since 2000, Saab automobile has had no connection with the defence and aeronautics firm with the same name. It only produces one model today, the electric 9-3 Aero Sedan, mainly targeting the Chinese market.