STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 19 (UPI) -- Thieves sold the apartment of the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's mother-in-law without her knowledge, officials said.
Prosecutors for Sweden's financial crimes unit, or Ekobrottsmyndigheten, said two men used falsified mortgage documents to an apartment owned by the 74-year-old mother of Filippa Reinfeldt, wife of the Swedish prime minister, and allegedly used them to secure loans of $350,000, the Swedish Web site The Local quoted local media as reporting Tuesday.
The funds were obtained from the mortgage lender SBAB, officials said. The men were caught when they arranged for the funds to be transferred to a Stockholm exchange office, where police set up a sting operation that netted the alleged thieves when they tried to withdraw the money, The Local said.
Prosecutor Thomas Forsberg of Ekobrottsmyndigheten said this alleged housing fraud differed from previous methods that involve soliciting payments for deposits and down payments.
"It is extremely cheeky," he reportedly said. "The set-up (of the fraud) is a new one for me."
