The visitor magnets Malmö Arena and the Emporia shopping center shine at the new Hyllie boulevard in southern Malmö. Two bus stops to the north meet another world: Kroksbäck's million program area from the 1960s.
The premises next to Kroksbäck School's canteen have all the blinds down since a month ago. But the sign above the entrance still hangs: "Flamman - Ungdomarnas hus".
Three high school boys stroll by and say they've seen why on Tiktok.
- They were the ones who were snatched, right?
It is about the two associations that the organization Flamman ran for almost 30 years.
Flamman's two leading figures, who have become well-known faces in Malmö for an often praised youth activity, were recently arrested by the Malmö District Court, and later also by the Court of Appeal.
After a year-long investigation by the Ecocrime Authority, the men, 70 and 44 years old respectively, were judged to be suspected on probable grounds of 193 cases of gross embezzlement in the years 2020-2024, gross accounting violations and grossly complicating tax control.
At the same time, the 44-year-old's villa was seized.
One of the guys outside the school says he has one of the arrested Flamman leaders as a neighbor.
- He is very nice.
The youth garden at the school has now been closed after the city of Malmö terminated the agreement. But Flamman stayed for a long time, claims breach of contract and has requested three million kroner to withdraw.
There on the farm, the boys say, they have been able to run PS 5, car games, have coffee and play football tournaments.
- Everyone was very sad when they closed, there aren't that many holiday parks here, says one of them.
Flamman's other location, next to Möllevångstorget in central Malmö, they have also been forced to leave. A long and close relationship between the municipality and Flamman has come to an abrupt end.
The business has received grants of at least SEK 130 million according to an audit in Sydsvenskan.
For a long time it sounded so different:
In 2023, Flamman received the City of Malmö's award as Association of the Year. From the justification: "For a long time they have collaborated with the city of Malmö to create a more sustainable Malmö". The year before, the police wrote after the so-called Easter coups, linked to Rasmus Paludan's Koran burnings, that Flamman contributed to lowering the level of conflict.
As a thank you, the association's leader was given a medal by the police and a few months later the national police chief Anders Thornberg came to visit to talk about Flamman's dropout program. Two years ago, Flammans was officially thanked with a gift by the police and the chairman of the municipal board for the help during the Eurovision final.
For many years, visitors and invitees stood in line. Among the first was former S leader Mona Sahlin, who visited the leisure park in Kroksbäck in 2010.
In the 2018 election spurt, M leader Ulf Kristersson came, ate pizza, played table tennis and was questioned in front of the audience by one of the men now in custody. A year later, Kristersson was back. In the same vein, then Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (S) greeted.
Then came the newspaper Sydsvenskan's disclosure about the salaries of the Flamman managers. For being an association-run grant-dependent activity, they stood out. The arrested 44-year-old's taxed income was last year 1.1 million and in 2024 almost 1.8 million, the 70-year-old earned 808,000 last year and 1.3 million the year before.
The city of Malmö decided to hire external auditors, suspended all payments and demanded refunds, followed by a police report.
Flamman's biggest contributor has been the Allmänna arvsfonden, which over the years has decided on support of around 100 million. An example: in 2024, they granted 14.4 million for the project "a real online leisure park" with the aim of "ensuring all children's right to play, rest, leisure and development."
In December last year, however, the fund pulled the brakes and decided to stop further payments to the "No to crime" project.
In January this year, Flamman was declared bankrupt. Exactly what the detained men are suspected of, Chamber prosecutor Björn Rosenlöf at the Ecocrime Authority does not want to go into today.
- There is confidentiality and I cannot say more at the moment, says Rosenlöf.
According to Sydsvenskan, the detainees are suspected of embezzling 4.8 million through false payments. The 44-year-old has previously said that they had a commission model where the person who succeeded in selling Flamman's services could keep half of the income as salary.
Both deny wrongdoing. The 44-year-old's lawyer Kristoffer Ståhl tells DN:
- The prosecutor believes that the wages were so high that the work was made up, that they were simply paid too much. But the salary my client received is compensation for work performed and it is recorded correctly. He has worked 365 days a year on call every day.
Both lawyer Ståhl and Flamman's lawyer in the dispute with the city of Malmö, Filip Funk, react to the men being detained on the grounds that they should not be able to destroy evidence by communicating with each other.
- The police report is a year old and the police seized computers and phones in December. They have had plenty of time to talk to each other, so I am very surprised by the reason for the arrest, says lawyer Funk.
One of all the police officers who had contact with the now detained Flamman representatives is Tobias Bråhammar, municipal police in Malmö. He believes that Flamman's activities have helped.
- It became clear during the Koran burnings, there was a knowledge of the language and a closeness to groups that demonstrated against Rasmus Paludan that we ourselves did not have, says Tobias Bråhammar.
He says that perhaps an image could arise in the town that Flamman was working on behalf of the police, but that was not the case.
- They were involved in the context and we experienced it as positive.
As unanimous as Malmö's politicians have been over the years to pay support to Flamman, they were equally unanimous on November 20 last year when the Leisure Board decided to de-register the association as eligible for grants.
As chairman, Sanna Axelsson (S) held the club.
- Once we received the investigation, there was no talk of the matter. Yes, there has been good business... but then there have been irregularities that we reported to the police. It is very sad, but for us a clear decision, she says today.
She does not have access to the prosecutor's investigation, but that it would only be about the withdrawal of high salaries is not her image.
- There are ambiguities in how money went between Flamman's two associations. In the end, it is tax money and there must be a reasonableness.
How do the closures of Flamman's businesses affect the young people?
- I feel that we have covered for all these children, the city has stepped up in the area to provide opportunities for meaningful leisure time.
First enormous grant amounts, then an abrupt stop. How did society end up here?
- The overarching issue here concerns risks of welfare crime where associations can receive support from many different quarters. Then a good way is needed to ensure that the money goes to the right things. The city of Malmö works actively to counteract this and has done so for several years.
At the same time, she cares about the overall picture.
- Most associations do a fantastic job, here in Malmö they take care of around 30,000 children in football alone. It would never have worked with municipal resources alone.
