The search for the missing 200 million kroner in the case of disgraced businessman Stein Bagger, has been renewed after new information has surfaced in connection with an internship Bagger is doing from behind bars.
Boris Frederiksen, the man in charge of locating the missing funds, had initially begun the hunt in early 2010, but he was forced to halt the search in October 2011 after the money trail went cold.
Bagger was an acclaimed CEO of the company IT Factory before disappearing on 27 November 2008 while on a trip to Dubai with his wife and business partners. A few days later, it emerged that IT Factory’s revenue had been falsely inflated as part of a plan to defraud banks and investors for over 1.2 billion kroner, the biggest case of it’s kind in Denmark for decades.
IT Factory was declared bankrupt and a warrant was issued for Bragger's arrest. Bagger fled Dubai for New York, were he hired a car and drove to Los Angeles, turning himself in to police authorities on December 6.
The 45-year-old Bagger is currently serving a seven-year sentence for his actions but seems to be trying to make a comeback of sorts. Adopting the name Steen Bach, Bagger is taking a business degree at Copenhagen Business School from behind bars and has been allowed by the prison service to take part in an internship programme in a moving and storage company.
The company, called Dansk-Selfstorage.dk, is led by Rene Andersen, who is one of Bagger’s acquaintances, and is shrouded in mystery, especially when it comes to the 3.2 million kroner in the company that comes from the off-shore firm Niva Trading LTD.
It is on this background that Frederiksen has decided to renew his search for the missing 200 million kroner and to see if Bagger's latest move is a ploy to launder the money.
“The question that I and everyone else have when they look into the story is of course whether this is a plot to somehow lead some of the hidden funds overseas back into the country,” Frederiksen told Børsen newspaper.
But regardless of the hunt for the missing money, it is clear that Bagger will never be allowed to be in an influential position in a company ever again.
“Stein Bagger’s right to be a founder, CEO or board member with limited responsibility in a company or an association which demands special public approval or a fund, has been suspended indefinitely according to the criminal law § 79,” his sentence read.
Bagger rejected the notion that he has anything to do with Niva Trading Ltd.
