On Tuesday, the trial against one of Norway’s most famous entrepreneurs starts.
Idar Vollvik – the man who became a billionaire on the sale of the mobile company Chess in 2005 – is now sitting on the indictment bench for incorrect labeling of face masks during the corona pandemic.
Police believe the entrepreneur deliberately repackaged, tried to repackage, or mislabeled 700,000 non-medical face masks, which were to be sold in the online store Ludo Store during the corona pandemic.
The aim of the repackaging should have been to make them appear as medical, ie bandages that are approved for use in the health care system with proven protection against the spread of infections.
These are medical bandages:
Medical sanitary napkins are divided into Type I, Type II or Type IIR. Higher type numbers provide higher filtration and more protection.
- Type I: Should be used to reduce the risk of spreading infections. Type I bandages are not intended for use by healthcare professionals in an operating room or in other medical settings with similar requirements (bacterial filtration efficiency ≥ 95%). Type II: Surgical bandage.
- Type II: Surgical sanitary napkins with the highest degree of filtration. They are designed for use in surgical and medical settings in healthcare (bacterial filtration efficiency ≥ 98%).
- Type IIR: Same requirements as type II, but the mouthpiece is also splash-resistant, and may be somewhat heavier to breathe through (bacterial filtration efficiency ≥ 98%).
Source: The Norwegian Medicines Agency
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Water damage and repackaging
Prosecutor Silje Alsaker Solheim is tight-lipped about the case, but says the following to TV 2:
– The prosecuting authorities take seriously the offenses to which the indictment applies.
In the indictment, the public prosecutor has written that the prosecuting authority believes that there are particularly aggravating circumstances because the incorrect marking occurred during the corona pandemic, as there was a great need for safe infection control equipment.
– WORD BUTTON: Prosecutor Silje Alsaker Solheim will not comment on the case significantly before the trial starts. Photo: Ivar Lid Riise / TV 2
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Vollvik is clear that he will not speak to TV 2 before the trial, but has all along denied criminal guilt.
On September 3, 2020, a few days after the arrest, the entrepreneur wrote in a press release that his company in good faith had ordered a batch of medical bandages type 1.
These are products that should have more than 95 percent bacterial filtration effect.
– These mouthpieces were consequently also resold as type 1 mouthpieces. Some of the cartons / boxes had water damage, which led us to repack the bandages in new boxes, Vollvik wrote.
He was Norway’s most talked about entrepreneur
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Thought he was being persecuted
I et interview with TV 2 on September 4, 2020, said the Ludo founder that he started importing face masks in February / March when the pandemic began.
To ensure that the goods were of good enough quality, the entrepreneur must have hired professionals.
– The crux of the matter is that of all these transactions we have made, it may be that we have on one occasion been given non-medical sanitary napkins. When we discovered that something was wrong, we returned half of them, and began collecting the ones we had delivered, he said at the time.
According to Vollvik, it was at this time that the police went into action.
In the same interview, Vollvik thought that he was being persecuted for something that all mouthpiece sellers in the country sin at.
– When it comes to labeling, we have sinned. But so has the whole of Norway. You can go to the pharmacy and buy a bandage you get in a cardboard bag without date marking or anything, but then we are the ones who are put in the gallows, Vollvik said.
I a report from the Norwegian Medicines Agency it later emerged that Vollvik’s bandages were “better than feared”.
– SALES: This is what the Ludo Store online store looked like in September 2020, before the products were removed or changed. Photo: Screenshot
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Will not comment
The case will now be tried in court, and already on the first day Vollvik will give his explanation.
Prosecutor Silje Alsaker Solheim will at this time not comment on the mentioned explanations Vollvik has given in the media.
– We note that he denies criminal guilt. Now he will explain himself in court, she says.
The penalty for violating the relevant law on medical devices is fines or imprisonment for two years. The mouthpiece case made headlines in all national media when it broke out just over 1.5 years ago.
– The prosecuting authority relates to this case independently of the media attention, says Solheim.
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