TeliaSonera, a mobile network operator in Sweden and Finland, announced it has sacked four senior employees including TeliaSonera’s executive vice president and chief financial officer Per-Arne Blomquist over financial fraud.
Following this, Christian Luiga is appointed acting CFO of TeliaSonera. Luiga, currently head of CEO Office, will assume the position as acting chief financial officer, TeliaSonera said in a statement.
The development follows the appointment of Norton Rose Fulbright, an international law firm, earlier this year to review the transactions and agreements made over the past few years by TeliaSonera and partners in Eurasia.
The purpose of the review was for the Board and management to get as thorough a view as possible of the Group’s transactions in Eurasia, and to carry out a risk assessment from a business ethics perspective of these transactions, the company said.
On the basis of the information, TeliaSonera’s Board and CEO found the processes for conducting some transactions have not been in line with sound business practices. As a consequence four individuals will now leave the company.
In addition to Norton Rose Fulbright the Swedish law firm Mannheimer Swartling has also advised the Board, the company said.
Statement from Marie Ehrling, chairman of the Board, said, “The Board’s conclusion is that some senior employees no longer have the trust of the Board. Therefore they have been notified that their employment with TeliaSonera will be terminated and they will leave their position effective immediately. It is not the Board’s task to assess the legal aspects, but we have decided to hand over the material from the Norton Rose Fulbright review to the Prosecutor’s office as part of our continuous dialogue.”
“The President and CEO Johan Dennelind have already taken important measures to strengthen governance and compliance in TeliaSonera,” Ehrling said. “The board will with all possible means support and facilitate this important work.”
Johan Dennelind, president and CEO, said, “Together with the Board I have come to the conclusion that the way some transactions in the past were managed does not live up to the high standards of business ethics and transparency that TeliaSonera wants to stand for. Based on Norton Rose Fulbright’s findings I am taking necessary actions.”
“It is the responsibility of all our employees, including senior management, to ensure that we maintain high standards of business ethics and to implement necessary governance and compliance to uphold them. Going forward we need strong leadership on all levels to create a sound culture,” Dennelind added.
