Former Sweden Yachts head jailed for fraud

Mattias Rutgersson, the former head of boatbuilder Sweden Yachts Group (SYG), has been sentenced to one year in prison by the criminal division of the Uddevalla District Court in western Sweden.

The verdict, delivered on 11 June 2025, concludes what has been described as one of the most brazen cases of insolvency fraud in international boatbuilding in recent years.

Rutgersson was also banned from practising for three years and has been ordered to pay substantial fines for “serious tax evasion.” He has until 2 July to lodge an appeal. The court made it clear that a custodial sentence was the only appropriate sanction, noting, “Rutgersson has also been prosecuted for accounting offences in the past. A sanction other than a custodial sentence is therefore out of the question.”

For several years, Rutgersson misappropriated company funds and defrauded yacht buyers out of advance payments totalling more than €4m.

German sailing magazine Yacht – which first broke the story – reveals the two largest losses were incurred by a German yacht buyer, a doctor from North Rhine-Westphalia; and the Swedish tax authorities. The doctor is believed to have transferred €522,000 in instalments to SYG during the pandemic to ensure continued construction of the vessel, with the final payment scheduled for delivery of the yacht. When the company went bankrupt, the buyer was left with a nothing more than a near-empty GRP hull.

Yacht reports that customers had repeatedly invested hundreds of thousands of euros during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure the continued construction of their yachts. However, Rutgersson used the funds to cover other financing shortfalls, including his own tax debts.

As the court noted, “He explained that he had borrowed the money elsewhere and then wanted to pay it back. However, Rutgersson did not give a single indication of where the money was to come from. (…) He must have realised that he might not be able to borrow more than 4,000,000 kroner privately. (…) Against this background, the District Court agrees with the Swedish Tax Agency’s assessment that the payments should be regarded as salary.”

The court found that Rutgersson diverted 4,090,000 Swedish kronor (€370,000) from two of his companies, Sweden Yachts Group AB and Sweden Yachts Group Marin AB, to pay private debts. The court ruled that he must now pay the outstanding income tax on the misappropriated funds, along with a 40 per cent penalty on the tax debt.

During the trial, Rutgersson acknowledged what he had done was wrong. According to the judgment, he “admitted the tax offence” during the hearing and “did not object to the applications to prohibit the business activity.”

Although Rutgersson denied liability for repeatedly submitting late tax returns – obscuring the yard’s financial difficulties – the court established that he had committed “seven breaches of the accounting obligation”, considered “not minor.” The judges concluded that he “was unable to provide a reasonable explanation as to why all the annual financial statements had not been submitted on time despite reminders and late payment penalties.”

“Rutgersson has also been prosecuted for accounting offences in the past,” the court wrote; something that was factored into the court’s decision.

When insolvency proceedings began in spring 2023, it became clear that SYG’s liabilities amounted to SEK 53m (€4.8m). According to insolvency administrator Paula Save, who compiled the report, the company’s assets totalled only €11,860, with outstanding receivables of €4.17m. Due to major gaps in the accounts, she could not determine the exact date of insolvency, suggesting that it may have occurred as early as the first quarter of 2020. This was a full three years before Rutgersson filed for insolvency.

Rutgersson’s ability to maintain the ruse – termed a “ponzi scheme” by Yacht – until autumn 2023 was understood to be aided by the good reputation of Orust boatbuilders, his “trustworthy appearance” and the confidence of yacht owners. The scheme collapsed when the financial mismanagement was ultimately revealed, leading to SYG’s bankruptcy.

Sweden Yachts was established in 1976 as Sweden Boats, building yachts to order, such as the 12-metre R-Yacht, which was Sweden’s contender for the America’s Cup. At its peak, the yard produced around 25 hulls per year.

The company previously went bankrupt in 2008, bringing production to a halt, but resumed building boats in 2018 as Sweden Yachts Group, which also incorporated Malö Yachts, CR Yachts and Regina Yachts.