It was in December 2016 that the 62-year-old man was sentenced by the Borgarting Court of Appeal for gross fraud against banks and private individuals. When he was due to appear at the facility to serve his two-year prison sentence, he never showed up.
When the authorities did not get hold of the man, they chose to call for him, both nationally and internationally.
Arrested in Sweden
In January 2018, the art dealer reported himself to the police in Spain. The Norwegian police believed that the man fulfilled the obligation to report, while the Spanish police considered whether he should be extradited to Norway.
Until 2020, the man lived in Marbella and fulfilled his duty to report his presence to the police once a week. But in 2018, Spanish authorities decided that he should indeed be extradited.
Then the art dealer disappeared without a trace and the Spanish authorities issued a wanted notice.
It wasn’t until four years later that life on the run ended.
– I can confirm that he was arrested in Sweden this summer and extradited to Norway to serve the fraud sentence. Good police work and cooperation with Swedish police was what led to him being found, state prosecutor Geir Kavlie in Økokrim tells VG.
Details: The gang wants him
The art dealer is represented by lawyer Christian Flemmen Johansen, who states that the man hid for reasons other than that he did not want to serve his sentence.
– I can’t develop the whole thing more at the moment, but I can say as much as that he has been exposed to things that anyone would do their utmost to avoid having anything to do with, he says to VG.
According to the newspaper’s information, the man must have claimed that he lives under great pressure from various criminal gangs and that he was therefore worried about his own safety.
At the same time, another criminal investigation is underway against the art dealer, even in that case he is suspected of serious fraud involving tens of millions of Norwegian kroner. The man denies any wrongdoing.