Sweden forced a Russian billionaire out of Dutch carmaker Spyker on suspicion of shady dealings before allowing the group to take over Swedish-based Saab, a newspaper reported Saturday. Business daily Dagens Industri, quoting a government official, said Swedish intelligence suspected Vladimir Antonov, who had a 30 percent stake in Spyker, of money-laundering and links to organised crime.

The intelligence report passed on to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation led Saab owner General Motors to reject an initial offer from Spyker in December and announce the shutdown of the Swedish firm, Dagens Industri said. When the 400 million dollar deal was finally announced on Tuesday Spyker said its CEO Victor Muller would be taking up the whole of Antonov's stake, without giving a reason. Dagens Industri quoted a junior finance minister, Hans Lindblad, as confirming that a Swedish investigation into Antonov had led to GM blocking the deal with Spyker last month.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010