Starbreeze offices raided as Swedish authorities investigate insider trading allegations

Starbreeze, the publisher of games including Payday 2 and Overkill's The Walking Dead, has confirmed reports that its Stockholm office was raided by Swedish authorities investigating allegations of insider trading.

Word of the raid first surfaced in Swedish sources including Expressen.se, which said that authorities had seized computers and documents as part of an investigation into a "suspected gross insider breach in Starbreeze." Google translations are often dodgy, but Starbreeze confirmed that the reports are accurate in a statement sent to GamesIndustry.biz.

"On Wednesday Swedish Economic Crime Authority has conducted a search query at Starbreeze AB. The company has been informed that this has occurred due to suspicions of insider charges," it said. "The company as such is not subject to any suspicion. The company cooperates full [sic] with the Swedish Economic Crime Authority. The event does not affect the company or the ongoing business reconstruction."

The Economic Crime Authority issued a similar statement of its own: "This morning officals [sic] from the Swedish Economic Crime Authority raided the offices of Starbreeze in Stockholm. One person was arrested and items were seized. The raid is part of an ongoing investigation involving suspected insider trading."

The raid comes just a couple of days after Starbreeze announced that it had filed for reconstruction in order to avoid bankruptcy, a situation caused in part by poor sales of Overkill's The Walking Dead. Starbreeze also said at the time that then-CEO Bo Andersson had resigned, but Andersson told Expressen that he had been "fired." Again, the Google translation could be clouding the difference, but he also said that he had been "ordered not to comment on anything," a statement that does not seem quite so potentially nuanced.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.