headlines for a week, recognised that the story really did hold up. His attitude set
the course for the story.
After the interview the Wennerström affair imperceptibly slipped from the financial
section over to the desks of the crime reporters. In the past, ordinary crime
reporters had seldom or never written about financial crime, except if it had to do
with the Russian mob or Yugoslav cigarette smugglers. Crime reporters were not
expected to investigate intricate dealings on the Stock Exchange. One evening
paper even took Blomkvist at his word and filled two spreads with portraits of
several of the brokerage houses’ most important players, who were in the process
of buying up German securities. The paper’s headline read SELLING OUT THEIR
COUNTRY. All the brokers were invited to comment on the allegations. Every one of
them declined. But the trading of shares decreased significantly that day, and some
brokers who wanted to look like progressive patriots started going against the
stream. Blomkvist burst out laughing.
The pressure got to be so great that sombre men in dark suits put on a concerned
expression and broke with the most important rule of the exclusive club that made
up the innermost circles of Swedish finance—they commented on a colleague. All
of a sudden retired industrial leaders and bank presidents were appearing on TV
and answering questions in an attempt at damage control. Everyone realised the
seriousness of the situation, and it was a matter of distancing themselves as quickly
as possible from the Wennerström Group and shedding any shares they might
hold. Wennerström (they concluded almost with one voice) was not, after all, a real
industrialist, and he had never been truly accepted into “the club.” Some pointed
out that he was just a simple working-class boy from Norrland whose success may
have gone to his head. Some described his actions as a personal tragedy. Others
discovered that they had had their doubts about Wennerström for years—he was
too boastful and he put on airs.
During the following weeks, as Millennium’s documentation was scrutinised, pulled
apart, and pieced together again, the Wennerström empire of obscure companies
was linked to the heart of the international Mafia, including everything from illegal
arms dealing and money laundering for South American drug cartels to
prostitution in New York, and even indirectly to the child sex trade in Mexico. One
Wennerström company registered in Cyprus caused a dramatic stir when it was
revealed that it had attempted to buy enriched uranium on the black market in
Ukraine. Wennerström’s apparently inexhaustible supply of obscure post-office-
box companies seemed to be cropping up everywhere, linked to all manner of
shady enterprises.