The municipality failed its own routines for foster family placements when approving the man and woman as foster parents. According to the municipality's own policy document, the first step in preparing foster family placements is to obtain extracts from a large number of registers, such as suspicion, criminal record, and enforcement authority registers. A source with insight into the matter says it was a 'quick placement' and that the background checks conducted did not indicate the couple would be unsuitable as foster parents. However, the man's debts of 14 million kronor with the Enforcement Authority would have been discovered if the municipality had followed its routines.
The man has several convictions from the early 2000s up to 2014, although these have been expunged from the criminal record. Two of the convictions are for assault, one of which led to five months in prison, and one is for a crime against the Knife Act. These details, documented in his personal investigations, were not uncovered in the placement process.
Suspicions about a pimping operation involving the man had been ongoing for almost two and a half years, but they were not known when the decision was made in Söderhamn. Despite SVT repeatedly seeking several important people in Söderhamn municipality, they have not wanted to comment on the foster family placement. Margareta Högberg (C), chair of the children and learning committee, refers in a written response only to a reply to an interpellation from 2025 about how the municipality should act regarding foster family placements.