Investigative Reporting Wins Bonnier Award in Estonia

Äripäev staff reporter Piret Reiljan won Estonia's oldest and most prestigious journalism prize, the Bonnier Award, given to the best investigative story of the year. Worth SEK 40,000, the Bonnier Award in Estonia was first given out in 1996.

Reiljan received the award for her story on Swedbank's conflict of interests, when the bank invested its pension funds' clients' money into bonds of enterprises that were getting loans from Swedbank itself. After the stories ran in Äripäev, Swedbank was forced by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority to compensate its pension fund clients EUR 10 million euros. The scandal has been credited as one of the reasons the head of Swedbank Robur, the bank's investment branch, left the company.