SHARE
COPY LINK

PRISON

Norway oil maverick jailed for five years

Maverick Norwegian oil man Berge Gerdt Larsen has been sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding his own company, Larsen Oil and Gas, of 20.5 million kroner ($3.4m), and evading taxes.

Norway oil maverick jailed for five years
Berge Larsen
"The defendant has…committed fraud against his own company," the judge said in a hard-hitting judgement. "He has shown longstanding criminal intention, and a lack of respect for the basic obligation of business people to pay taxes." 
 
The judge ruled that Larsen had set up an "ingenious" system involving "mispriced options and stock transactions, tax havens, and back-dating documents" to protect a fortune worth some 645 million kroner ($108m) from taxation in Norway. 
 
Larsen hit back in a press release attacking the "incompetent" court, confirming his previous promise to appeal the judgement. 
 
As well as the jail term, two and a half years of which come as a suspended sentence, Larsen was fined four million kroner.  The prosecutor Elisabeth Deinboll also demanded that 31.6 million kroner of Larsen's wealthy be confiscated to compensate for his alleged tax evasion. 
 
Larsen, with his trade-mark shoulder-length hair, was a well-known figure in the international oil industry as chief executive of DNO, Norway's leading independent exploration company, from 1998 to 2004, and then its chairman, spearheading the company's bold and profitable move into Iraqi Kurdistan. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

PRISON

Intern at German prison faces hefty bill after sending photo of master key to friends

A man on a work placement at a prison in the state of Brandenburg was immediately dismissed from his internship after sending friends a photo of the prison's master key via the messenger service WhatsApp.

Intern at German prison faces hefty bill after sending photo of master key to friends
A prison key. Photo: DPA

The man now faces paying a bill of up to €50,000 after Brandenburg’s justice ministry had to pay for the immediate replacement of 600 locks in the prison, Bild newspaper reports.

A photograph of a key could provide enough information for a skilled locksmith to be able to replicate it, leading the prison to fear that keys could be smuggled through to the inmates.

The justice department received a tip off that the intern had shared a picture of the master key for the JVA Heidering prison at the end of February. “A large number of cells and corridor doors had to have their locks changed,” a spokesman told Bild.

Some twenty prison guards worked into the early hours of the following morning to ensure that all the locks were changed.

The prison is situated just outside the city boundaries of Berlin on the southwestern edge of the capital.

“The internship ended with immediate effect and the intern was issued with a ban on entering the building,” the spokesperson said.

SEE ALSO: Seventh prisoner escapes from Berlin jail within a week

SHOW COMMENTS