Russian investigators have accused a former senior IKEA manager of extorting 6.5 million rubles ($203,000) from a Russian businessman who wanted to rent retail space controlled by the Swedish company.
“The 35-year-old national of Sweden” was part of an “organized international criminal group” trying to force the businessman to pay the bribe to expedite a deal to rent out two premises in a shopping mall just outside of Moscow, a statement on the Russian Interior Ministry’s website said.
The Swede, identified as Carl Ingvaldson by a source close to the investigation, was deliberately delaying negotiations over the lease when a 43-year-old “Turkish national” offered to help in exchange for a $360,000 bribe.
The original amount was later reduced to $225,000. The Turkish national was caught red-handed as the greater part of that amount was being handed over to him in a Moscow café.
“The extortion began in February,” an unnamed investigator told the online newspaper Gazeta.ru.
Ingvaldson, who was sacked in May as the investigation was under way, and a third member of the group are currently outside of Russia.
IKEA said it was aware of an "investigation into several former employees" of the company.
"In the interests of the investigation, we cannot comment on the situation or provide information about the current or former employees of IKEA Russia," the firm said.
