Remember those two high-level executives from Swedish startup Klarna who were arrested earlier this month on sexual abuse charges?
Their names are Jens Saltin and Niklas Adalberth, and they were arrested at the W Hotel in New York after allegedly molesting a 19-year-old tourist from Texas.
Well after a little follow up (it’s not often that we get to call into the New York City District Attorney’s office), it would seem as though the case has been dismissed.
Here’s the official statement out of the DA’s office:
After conducting a thorough investigation that included but was not limited to interviewing relevant witnesses, viewing surveillance video and other hotel records and speaking extensively with the complainant we have concluded that we cannot prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Saltin and Adalberth were released on $10,000 bail after their February 4 arrest. According to the police report “defendant Adalberth straddled informant, both defendants removed informant’s clothes, and defendant Adalberth grabbed informant’s breast. Deponent is further informed that she did not consent to said conduct.”
Shortly after, Klarna released a statement:
We are aware of the alleged incident in New York City involving Niklas Adalberth and Jens Saltin. Both Mr. Adalberth and Mr. Saltin maintain their innocence and have taken temporary leave from the company while the matter is being investigated.
Since the men were charged with a felony, neither reached the point in the court process where they were asked to plead guilty or not guilty, so we still haven’t really heard their side of the story.
We’ve sent out a request to Klarna for a statement and will update as soon as we hear more.
Update: Klarna has responded with the following statement:
As we have been expecting all along, the accusations brought against our employees have now been proven entirely unfounded and all charges have been dismissed.
Our employees did nothing wrong, did not break any law and should thus never have ended up in this very unfortunate situation. We now leave this incident behind us and welcome back our employees to their central roles within the company.
”Klarna has become the most elegant, checkout usher for commerce websites all over Europe. Shoppers and merchants know that Klarna makes life – and payments – easier than ever. And what greases the wheels of e-commerce in Europe will make for a wonderful and important company.”. Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital 2011. Klarna is one of Europe’s leading providers of payment solutions for e-commerce. Klarna separates buying from paying by allowing buyers to pay for ordered goods after receiving them,...
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