JUDGED: Laila Mjeldheim owned and managed Det norske kartselskapet for several years. Now she has been convicted of fraud and gross obstruction of justice. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB
An ex-employee who was to testify in court was beaten. Now the former business owner Laila Mjeldheim has been convicted of gross obstruction of justice.
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The former business owner Laila Mjeldheim has been convicted of gross obstruction of justice after a former employee, Bjørn Ivar Nordstrøm, was beaten up. Mjeldheim was sentenced to six months’ suspended prison, while two others involved were sentenced to suspended prison terms of 9 months and 90 days. It took six years from the assault on 5 August 2017 to conviction in September 2023. Show more
On 5 August 2017, Bjørn Ivar Nordstrøm was knocked down by a stranger right outside his apartment in Oslo.
The man had been waiting for him, made contact via a fake number as a “flower delivery” and ordered Nordstrøm to “stay away from Laila” after the beatings.
Nordstrøm had notified a lawsuit against Laila Mjeldheim, his former boss in the sales company Det norske kartselskapet, and was to testify against her in another labor court case.
More than six years later, the Oslo District Court has now ruled that Mjeldheim is guilty of gross obstruction of justice.
There is also an environmental worker, who received NOK 30,000 from her to procure someone to intimidate or commit violence.
The former convict, who carried out the actual violence, has only been sentenced for the blows.
OFFENDED: This is what Bjørn Ivar Nordstrøm looked like right after being knocked down by a stranger on 5 August 2017. Photo: Privat
– Put this behind you
Mjeldheim was sentenced to six months’ probation. This means that she will not have to serve any longer in prison, beyond the 4.5 years she was sentenced to for fraud in 2021.
– She has denied and still denies having participated in this, but our main concern in this case has been that this should not affect her sentence – and it does not, says Øystein Storrvik, Mjeldheim’s defender.
– As the result turned out as it did, there are many indications that she now wants to put this behind her. But we will consider an appeal thoroughly, says Storrvik.
DEFENDERS: Øystein Storrvik defended Laila Mjeldheim, while Morton Furuholmen represented the man the court now believes was the link between Mjeldheim and a “torpedo”. Both their clients pleaded not guilty. Photo: Tore Kristiansen / VG
“Torpedo Mission”
Martin Hauger, police lawyer and prosecutor in the case, is satisfied that the court arrived at the same assessment of evidence as the prosecution.
– It is a thorough judgment that also sheds light on circumstances that are important for understanding why the incident happened. The court has learned the necessary background here, says Hauger.
Morten Furuholmen represented the environmental worker the court determined was the link between Mjeldheim and the convict who, according to the court, undertook a “torpedo mission”.
– We disagree with the court’s assessment of evidence in terms of facts and subjective guilt, states Furuholmen.
PREMISES: Here at Ryen in Oslo, the Kartselskapet had its premises before the company was declared bankrupt in 2020. Photo: Tore Kristiansen / VG
Verdict: “Sectarian and manipulative features”
VG revealed in December 2017 how Mjeldheim, together with the therapist Espen Andresen, had made a fortune from the collaboration between the Kartselskapet and the Addictology Academy, which Andresen owns.
Drug addicts and other vulnerable people were recruited to the Map Company and then ended up in therapy at Andresen – or vice versa. Nordstrøm first began therapy at the Addictology Academy, before he was employed by Kartselskapet.
The Oslo district court describes the environment in this way:
“Overall, the district court finds that the integration between Kartselskap and the Academy presents clear sectarian and manipulative features, supplemented by close and almost all-encompassing social control (…)”
Further:
“Both failure to take out the trash or empty the dishwasher, not taking assigned Academy assignments sufficiently seriously, arriving late for work, and breaking the imposed ban on sex or masturbation could justify salary deductions”the judgment states.
ASSISTANCE LAWYER: Olle Nohlin complained about the closure of the violence against Nordstrøm in the winter of 2018, which led to its reopening. More than five years later, a conviction has been reached in the case. Photo: Fredrik Solstad / VG
– Harmful to society
– The judgment is particularly thorough and confirms the fact that my client has claimed for many years. Attacking a witness is a very socially damaging activity, says Olle Nohlin, the legal aid lawyer for Nordstrøm.
The case has been dropped, reopened by the Oslo State Attorney’s Office and then had an “unusually long, unfounded stay”, according to the Oslo district court.
– Unfortunately, it is also harmful to society that cases like this are apparently not prioritized by the police and that the victim must therefore wait many years to get justice, says Nohlin.
In the judgment, it appears that the district court believes that this occurred “collection (…) and external distribution of “crap packages”, (…), false reviews (…) and also collection of private debts (…)” against defectors from the environment around the Kartselskapet and Addictology Academy.
VG documented this in an article in September 2018.
PROSECUTOR: Martin Hauger was the prosecutor in the case. Photo: Tore Kristiansen / VG
– More negative
“However, Mjeldheim’s initiating, coordinating and follow-up role in the other measures helps to make her ordering the attack against Nordstrøm gross”the judgment states.
Laila Mjeldheim is currently telling her side of the story in “Superselgeren”, a new documentary series on Viaplay.
– We believe that the court has described the environment more negatively than the reality she recognizes in, says defense attorney Storrvik.
The lawyer has also represented Espen Andresen when he was previously under investigation in the case complex. Andresen is mentioned several times in the judgment.
– He has not been charged in this case and had no one to defend himself. On his behalf, I would like to say that all cases relating to him have been dropped, says Storrvik.
LAWYER: Attorney Sverre Sjøvold in the Oslo district court together with prosecutor Martin Hauger from the Oslo police district. Photo: Tore Kristiansen / VG
– As expected
The environmental worker, who has also been convicted of gross obstruction of justice, for his role in procuring the perpetrator, received a nine-month suspended sentence.
The reason why Mjeldheim received a lighter sentence in isolation was that her sentencing was done as a so-called additional punishment in connection with the fraud sentence from 2021 already imposed.
The former convict, who has only been sentenced for the violence, received a 90-day suspended sentence. He confessed to the violence itself, but claimed to have nothing to do with gross opposition to the judiciary.
This means that these also do not have to go to prison, but receive a probationary period of two years – in contrast to Mjeldheim, who received a probationary period of four years.
– The result was as expected and it was good to see that it was a reasonable appearing prosecutor who chose to drop the charges for gross obstruction of justice, says lawyer Sverre Sjøvold.
He represented the perpetrator, who received NOK 2,000 from the environmental worker minutes after the assault on Nordstrøm.
– It came as a great surprise that an indictment was first issued on this point. A reasonable prosecuting authority would have chosen to conduct the case for my client as a confession assessment, taking into account the long period of time the case has been pending, says Sjøvold.
Published:
Published: 27.09.23 at 10:10
Updated: 27.09.23 at 10:39 am
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2023-09-27 08:10:19
#Laila #Mjeldheim #convicted #torpedo #mission
