Former TeliaSonera Lars Nyberg may be held liable for actions while he was still in office in 2013, after shareholders of the operator failed to discharge him from liability as CEO. The Annual General Meeting discharged the other members of the board of directors and current CEO from liability for the financial year 2013. Nyberg, along with other top executives, stepped down last year in the wake of a scandal over allegations of bribery and corruption in the company's acquisition of a licence in Uzbekistan. An investigation was started by the Swedish public prosecutor, and the case has since widened to include investigations in the US, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Reuters reported from the meeting that chairwoman Marie Ehrling said problems in other Eurasian markets had been identified by a review conducted by law firm Norton Rose Fulbright for the company. "The board can unfortunately say that several transactions and practices have not been handled in accordance with good business practice," Ehrling said. "It can not be excluded that certain actions have been criminal." The review focused on Kazakhstan, Nepal, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Georgia.
The failure to discharge Nyberg means he can be sued later by the company for personal liability for any damages incurred. The Swedish state, TeliaSonera's largest shareholder, backed the decision to not discharge the former CEO, after earlier it put pressure on Nyberg to step down. The state secretary with responsibility for state-owned companies, Erik Thedeen, told the meeting that investors lacked the information to decide whether Nyberg failed in his duties as CEO.
The focus was in particular on two acquisitions completed in Kazakhstan in 2013. In a letter to shareholders published on the website of newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, Nyberg said he believed the company's deals in Kazakhstan were "clean". He said he believed TeliaSonera had made proper checks regarding who owned the assets that were purchased and who were the ultimate recipients of the money that was paid out.
Also at the AGM on 02 April, shareholders approved a motion to authorise the board to buy back up to 10 percent of its shares on the stock market before the 2015 AGM. They also passed a proposal to set up an incentive programme for about 200 key personnel running to 2017. The motion to pay an increased dividend of SEK 3 per share was cleared.
