Fariba Vancor, known in Sweden as the ‘garbage queen’, was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison. Vancor allegedly dumped and buried thousands of tons of waste for years. Some of her employees also have to go to jail.
In the trial, which began last September, eleven people were on trial. Vancor, along with four others, was among the main suspects. They have all been sentenced to prison terms.
For years, Vancor was the driving force behind the multi-million dollar company NMT Think Pink. Numerous agencies approached her for waste processing. Many people in the Stockholm area became familiar with the company’s pink rubble bags. Together with co-defendants, Vancor was accused of not processing waste, but simply dumping it.
During the investigation, dangerously high concentrations of heavy metals, arsenic and oil residues were measured at the dumping sites. In addition, fires were said to have occurred several times at the dumping sites due to careless handling. As a result, local residents were exposed to toxic fumes. The newspaper Aftonbladet describes the matter as the largest environmental crime in Swedish history.
Vancor was born in Iran and fled to Sweden as a teenager. There she worked her way up from stripper to entrepreneur. She also changed her name several times. For some time she went by the name Bella Nilsson.