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‘No salary cash at Saab’: Muller

Saab Automobile's CEO Victor Muller has changed his tune since yesterday's announcement. There is no money to pay employee salaries at Saab.

'No salary cash at Saab': Muller

Yesterday, Muller stated repeatedly that Saab has the cash needed for employees’ wages, but that the money couldn’t be paid, because of the company’s debts to suppliers.

Muller told news agency TT that the cash was in a bank account, but wouldn’t say where.

“I’m not going to tell you. It’s not important. We could’ve paid the wages, and we can,” said Muller to TT.

His comment provoked a strong reaction, not least from the Swedish Enforcement Authority (Kronofogdemyndigheten). The authority stated that Muller may be suspected of breaking the disclosure requirements.

Muller chose to clarify his statement on Friday evening, by posting on the Saab blog Inside Saab.

“These statements have unfortunately led to the interpretation that the funds would be available within Saab Automobile AB. However, Victor Muller reiterates that the funds to which he referred to are not and have never been within Saab

Automobile.”

Muller goes on to stress that Saab complies with Swedish law “in every aspect”, and that the company will cooperate fully with the Enforcement Agency.

“Victor Muller regrets that his statements have been misinterpreted,” concluded the statement.

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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.