Swedish execs cleared of New York sex crimes

Charges against the two Swedes suspected of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in a New York hotel room have been dismissed.

• Two Swedes arrested for sex crimes in New York (9 Feb 12)

“After conducting a thorough investigation that included but was not limited to interviewing relevant witnesses, viewing surveillance video and other hotel records and speaking extensively with the complainant we have concluded that we cannot prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt," assistant district attorney David Smith, of the Manhattan district attorney's office, said to the Betabeat newspaper.

Niklas Adalberth, 30, and Jens Saltin, 31 faced charges of allegedly attacking a 19-year-old woman from Texas at the W Hotel in Manhattan.

The men are both high-ranking executives at the Klarna e-commerce start-up.

Adalberth is the company's co-founder, while Saltin works as Klarna's Vice President of Sales in the Netherlands.

Defense attorney Andrea Zellan, who represented one of the Swedes, was delighted with the outcome.

"We have maintained from the outset that this case was based on a single, false and entirely baseless allegation that was not corroborated by any forensic, scientific, video or other witness testimony," she said to Betabeat.

Adalberth and Saltin are now planning to return to their work at Klarna, the company wrote in a statement to Betabeat.

"Our employees did nothing wrong, did not break any law and should thus never have ended up in this very unfortunate situation. We now leave this incident behind us and welcome back our employees to their central roles within the company.”