Ove Rainer

Ove Rainer   (politician, lawyer, businessman)
Born	14 September 1925 Gävle, Sweden
Died	27 January 1987 (Age 61) Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
A member of Palme's government who resigned amid tax impropriety  Sweden/Minister of Justice In office 1982 - 1983  Postverket/Director general In office 1973 - 1982

Anders Ove Rainer was a Swedish lawyer, civil servant, social democratic politician and sports leader. He was Director General of the Post Office 1973–1982, Minister of Justice 1982–1983 and Minister of Justice for nine days in November 1983. Rainer resigned from the government of Olof Palme after improprieties emerged in his personal tax affairs.

The Rainer affair

Ove Rainer was forced to resign as Minister of Justice on 9 November 1983 after Aftonbladet revealed on 1 November that Rainer had succeeded in reducing his personal tax to an absolute minimum by means of advanced business transactions carried out solely for the purpose of minimizing capital gains tax on a shareholding sold in 1981.

He had achieved this by making deductions and redeployments that were legally correct but, many considered, morally wrong of a Social Democrat. For ten days around the turn of the year 1981-1982, he borrowed, among other things, 19 million from the state-owned PK-bank, where he was chairman of the board, appointed by the government.

The fact that the situation quickly developed into a so-called affair was due in part to Rainer's tactical mistakes in dealing with the media onslaught. On November 2, 76-year-old veteran politician Nancy Eriksson had in an article in Aftonbladet strongly criticized Rainer's actions, which she described as a mockery of the ideals of social democracy. She had also talked about lice in the folds of the red flag.

Rainer's ill-chosen tactics were to resort to harsh verbal counter-attack, in which he urged the party to distance itself from the parliamentarian. He received no support and the Prime Minister refrained from commenting on the exchange of views. When Rainer refused to explain how it was possible for him to make a deduction of several million kronor and claimed that this was his private matter, the crisis became even greater.

The fact that Ove Rainer himself sat on PK-Banken's board did not improve his situation. Later, the Banking Inspectorate examined PK-Banken's role in the Rainer deal. They were critical on several points and found that PK-Banken had violated both the law and the Swedish Bank Inspectorate's ethical rules.

The Rainer deal lasted a total of nine days, from the time the first article was published in Aftonbladet, where Rainer was singled out as one of several millionaires who were considered to pay too little tax, until Rainer on the evening of November 9 announced that he was resigning, for the sake of his family and for personal reasons.

Twelve hours after Rainer was allowed to leave the Ministry of Justice, he was appointed, at his own request and with the support of Olof Palme, as Justice Councilor in the Supreme Court. On 18 November, it emerged that Rainer had received the Riksbank's permission in 1981 to export SEK 5 million to Switzerland to buy shares. The purpose was to gain full control of a deceased uncle's company. Immediately after the purchase of the shares, Rainer sold the company for SEK 12 million. The "Swiss deal" was not included in the report that Rainer provided before his departure. The prime minister claimed that he had not been informed and that Rainer had betrayed his trust. Rainer was again forced to file a resignation on November 19, but claimed he had not withheld anything from the prime minister. Olof Palme received harsh criticism for the quick appointment of Rainer as justice.

In 1986, Rainer was appointed Managing Director of the Swedish Vehicle Testing. He died^[Why?] in January the next year.

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