ATG Prevails in Swedish Court Case Over AML Sanctions

License: Pexels, Free to use, Author: EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA

Sweden's Administrative Court has overturned a decision by the regulator Spelinspektionen to impose penalties on AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) for deficiencies in anti-money laundering (AML) measures.

ATG

In November of last year, Spelinspektionen issued warnings and penalties to ATG, Kindred Group, and Pinbet, citing shortcomings in their AML and terrorist financing processes.

ATG was ordered to pay a penalty of SEK 6 million (£437,532/€508,050/$551,946) as part of the sanction.

Spelinspektionen found that ATG had failed to meet the necessary requirements and awareness for eight customers, and had not adopted a proactive or risk-based approach during the specified periods.

However, ATG appealed the decision to the Administrative Court in Linköping, which ruled in favor of the operator.

While acknowledging the shortcomings in ATG's handling of the customer cases, the court did not consider them to pose a clearly increased risk of money laundering activities. As a result, the court decided to annul the regulator's decision, stating that the violations did not warrant a warning and penalty fee.

ATG CEO Hasse Lord Skarplöth hailed the court's ruling as a significant victory and questioned Spelinspektionen's request to increase penalty fees in future cases.

Spelinspektionen has three weeks to appeal the court ruling from the date of the decision on 29 June.