Trustor. Joachim Posener in Trustor. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
In Netflix’s crime documentary Inside the Trustor Scandal, director Karin af Klintberg manages to pull off an unprecedented, in-depth interview with economic criminal Joachim Posener, the mastermind behind the 1997 Trustor affair.
Inside the Trustor Scandal documents one of Sweden’s biggest financial crimes, involving the highly illegal takeover of investment company Trustor in 1997, in which the company was purchased using its own money in a deal made with a British lord (Jonathan Guinness, Lord Moyne) hailing from the legendary Guinness family. The scheme was orchestrated by financier Joachim Posener. Following the revelation of the crime, in which he was deemed its mastermind, Posener disappeared off the map for almost 30 years to avoid prison; he’d been behind bars once before. In this documentary, the team gets unprecedented access to the illegal acquisition of Trustor and the subsequent investigation. Director Karin af Klintberg secures interviews with police investigators, journalists who followed the crime, and those closely involved. But most incredibly, she tracks down Joachim Posener himself, pulling him out of the shadows in an unbelievable no-holds-barred interview, gluing the entire documentary and all the missing jigsaw pieces together.
Joachim Posener has only been interviewed once before, dating way back to an appearance on Swedish documentary series 45 minuter in 2004. At the time, he was remarkably secretive about the interview. It took place in an undisclosed location in Europe, he covered his face, and the interview saw him make his first public comments in seven years regarding the Trustor scandal. The more recent Netflix interview began secretively — they still used undisclosed locations across Europe — but this time, after initially refusing, he shows his face for the first time. There are still some rules he tries not to waver from, including discussing his family.
Where is Joachim Posener today? And what key moments does the documentary not cover? Here’s our comprehensive overview.
What was the 1997 Trustor affair? A recap.
In 1997, Swedish financier Joachim Posener attempted one of the most audacious illegal business schemes in history. He attempted to purchase Swedish investment company Trustor by using the company’s own money, siphoning off roughly 600 million SEK. He spearheaded the plan, but Posener didn’t work alone. He also worked alongside his long-term associate Thomas Jisander and financier Peter Mattsson. They notably used British businessman Jonathan Guinness, known as Lord Moyne, as the frontman to give the fraudulent scheme a sense of legitimacy.
At first, the scheme was an immense success, with Posener even pursuing further business opportunities including the ambitious acquisition of sports company Wilson. In fact, a deal for Wilson was within four days of completion before ultimately collapsing. Just three months after the Trustor scandal took place, it began to unravel quickly. One of the most significant reasons for the collapse was that those who helped orchestrate the takeover, Jisander and Mattsson, were increasingly frivolous with their money, leading to increased publicity and more eyes on the Trustor team.
Once the group had gained ownership of the company, they transferred 730 million SEK from Trustor’s domestic accounts to foreign bank accounts in London (accounts linked to the group). After the takeover was complete, investigators noticed that 478 million SEK was missing, which was the first major red flag. Investigative journalist Gunnar Lindstedt exposed the scheme in October 1997, and that’s the point where the Trustor empire began to crumble.
For Posener, the scheme began to collapse when he was on vacation with his wife and daughter. He received a phone call notifying him that he was wanted for illegal business activities. There was subsequently an international arrest warrant against him, causing Posener to remain in hiding. As he mentions in the documentary, he moved between countries, notably spending a lot of time in Rio de Janeiro. To understand why he took such drastic measures, we need to look back at his earlier life. The Trustor scandal wasn’t Posener’s first major criminal offense. He previously served a six-year prison sentence in the early 1990s for economic crimes surrounding the Thulhärvan scandal, in which he embezzled from Danish companies. That prior prison sentence is significant in explaining why, after the Trustor scandal collapsed, he fled the country and lived in hiding with an international arrest warrant against him. As he mentions in the documentary, he didn’t want to return to prison for another sentence, so much so that he took on a different identity — known as a ‘Legend’ — and disappeared from the scene. He had to give up his past life, including contacting his wife and daughter.
Once the fraud surrounding Trustor was unravelled in October 1997, Swedish financial consultant Björn Björnsson was given the unfathomable task of untangling the legal mess that Trustor found itself in. He did everything from tracking missing capital across offshore bank accounts to salvaging value for shareholders. Incredibly, the work of Björnsson and his team saw them recover around half to two-thirds of the siphoned 478 million SEK — this was considered a monumental recovery. In fact, due to a sharp jump in Trustor’s stock value, minority shareholders actually made a profit.
What was the verdict of each figure involved?
- Joachim Posener — Because he fled, Posener was never tried or indicted for his crimes. He remained a fugitive until the criminal statute of limitations expired in 2007.
- Thomas Jisander — He was originally sentenced to 5 years in prison, but he was later acquitted due to a lack of evidence. In a separate trial in 2009, he was convicted of gross embezzlement and subsequently sentenced to 1.5 years in prison.
- Peter Mattsson — He was convicted by the District Court to serve a 3-year prison sentence, but like Jisander, he was later acquitted.
- Jonathan Guinness (Lord Moyne) — Lord Moyne was acquitted in 2001. He ardently denied that he knew about the scheme before getting involved, and realised that dodgy occurrences were taking place too late. He claims he was “stitched up” by the perpetrators.
Where is Joachim Posener today?
Picture: Netflix
Joachim Posener lived a life as a fugitive for almost 30 years before Inside the Trustor Scandal director Karin af Klintberg located him living luxuriously in an apartment in Monaco. The criminal allegations against him expired in June 2007. He settled civil disputes later that year by paying 1.5 million SEK, although he did not admit guilt. He saw ultimate freedom in December 2009 when he voluntarily met with Swedish prosecutors in Brussels to clear all remaining charges. Today, he walks a free man. In the documentary, he claims that the crimes he committed were not solely fuelled by monetary gains, but rather, he loved the thrill and adrenaline of seeing big deals go through.
The most recent update on him comes from newspaper Sweden Herald, which reported in February 2026 that he’d been arrested on suspicion of filming Norrtälje Prison with his mobile phone without permission. The charges against him, as reported by Norrtälje Tidning, include ‘unlawful depiction of protected objects’. Incidentally, this arrest reportedly took place while work was being done on the Netflix documentary.
The documentary also does not mention that Posener wrote a book in 2004 titled Finns det någon där ute? (translating to: Is Anyone Out There?) about his life on the run.
Meanwhile, Thomas Jisander has adopted a new legal name following his convictions. Peter Mattsson continues to work as a businessman following his acquittal. Jonathan Guinness, Lord Moyne, is still alive, aged 96.
Inside the Trustor Scandal is now streaming on Netflix.
