New revelations about various sensitive stock deals come daily. At the end of July, Education Minister Ola Borten Moe resigned following the revelation that he bought shares in the Norwegian arms group Kongsberg at the same time as the government made large arms orders.
At the end of August, it was revealed that Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt’s husband made over 100 stock transactions during his wife’s time as minister. He also bought arms stocks. According to Huitfeldt, she did not know about her husband’s affairs.
Erna Solberg’s husband made thousands of deals
Last week it was the turn of the right wing leader and former prime minister Erna Solberg. Her husband Sindre Finnes was forced to produce a list of all his stock purchases he made during her time as prime minister. It was a total of 3,600 deals. Many of them were sensitive – among other things, he sold a large number of shares on the same day his wife decided to shut down Norway in connection with the corona pandemic.
On Friday, September 15, a shaken Erna Solberg said at a press conference that she did not know the extent of her husband’s share purchase and that her trust in him was damaged.
Robert Næss believes that the share purchases are problematic in several ways, in addition to the fact that the prime minister has been stubborn in several decisions.
– This has been like a bomb. When you start digging into it, there are several transactions that look suspicious. Then you can ask – did he have inside information, could he have done insider trading? It could also just be luck or bad luck. But with so many transactions, there is a lot that looks strange, says Robert Næss.
“Probably another prime minister in 2025”
According to Robert Næss, a large shadow falls over Erna Solberg.
– You cannot have a person in the prime minister’s residence who tried to make money from the stock market going down in connection with Erna Solbeg shutting down Norway due to covid. Even if she were to leave him, there is a great deal of discussion about the extent to which she knew about these affairs. It is probably likely that someone else will become prime minister in 2025 instead of her, he says.