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Took a chance in Sweden and embezzled (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

speculated

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'took a chance' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I don't understand how one could define the other.

'sweden and embezzled' is the wordplay.
'sweden' becomes 's'.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'embezzled' becomes 'peculated' ('peculate' can be a synonym of 'embezzle').
's'+'peculated'='SPECULATED'

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for speculated that I've seen is " Took risks".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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