Some scenarios are simply too ridiculous to comprehend. Like letting notorious lip-syncher Britney Spears select principal singers for the Metropolitan Opera. Or putting that misogynist madman from Boko Haram in charge of choosing Cosmopolitan’s Woman of the Year. Or taking the word of indicted fraudster Jan Robert Gustafsson that the applicant you’re considering for a job is truly a mild-mannered engineer from Stockholm, rather than a sociopathic grifter looking to rob your company blind.
As unlikely it may seem, the latter scenario has a basis in fact, as Gustafsson has somehow conned his way onto the board of Swedish recruiting agency TNG. The firm, which charges companies £8k to do background checks on job candidates, apparently didn’t feel the need to vet the members of its own board, or else sees no problem with a man indicted for stealing from his former employer being allowed to pass judgment on the probity of others.
TNG touts its ability to “look beyond the obvious,” which must explain why it was able to look beyond Gustafsson’s multiple indictments in the Philippines relating to his former role with Bodog Asia, the company that fired Gustafsson for incompetence in early 2013. An audit subsequently discovered that Gustafsson and a number of former Bodog Asia employees had conspired to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars and had attempted to steal millions more before the company got wise to their plot.
Gustafsson’s résumé on the TNG website lists his former marketing role with Swedish newspaper Metro while making no mention whatsoever of his Bodog Asia tenure, but it’s hard to believe TNG could have missed the gap in Gustafsson’s employment record. TNG may not have a problem with Gustafsson, but what faith can TNG’s prospective clients have in any company that would hire a man who knowingly filed a false affidavit to cause trouble for his former employer, thereby putting the jobs of the company’s hundreds of employees at risk, all to shift the authorities’ focus away from his own legal difficulties?
We wanted to learn whether TNG was aware of Gustafsson’s Asian escapades before they invited him into their boardroom, but they declined to respond to CalvinAyre.com’s inquiries. Regardless of whether TNG had previous knowledge of Gustafsson’s past, they can no longer claim ignorance of same, meaning if Gustafsson is allowed to remain on their board, TNG’s reputation for vetting job candidates will look about as legitimate as having 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed serve as jury foreman at the trial of the Boston Marathon bomber.
