Property investors in bitter dispute – want to send a farmer in Bergen to the door – NRK Vestland

Along fields and housing estates in Ytrebygda in the very south of Bergen lies a valuable agricultural property. For almost three years, the property has been the subject of an intense conflict.

The farm is located close to attractive business areas in Kokstad and Sandsli, and covers a total of 143 acres.

Now farmer Sigurd Birkeland risks losing the family farm to forced sale, if two investors and a property billionaire get their way.

The background to the dispute is that Birkeland allegedly offered the farm as security for a gray market loan of NOK 30 million. The borrower was coffee heir Berent Friele, who recently passed away personal bankruptcy and is under investigation for financial crime.

After Friele defaulted on the loan, the three investors tried to have the farm forcibly sold already in 2022, but was not successful in two courts. Now they are trying again to get the court with them.

Dispute over pledge

Birkeland believes he never offered the farm as security for Friele’s loan.

The declaration about pledging the farm was not signed by the farmer himself, but by the financial adviser Tor-Erik Nielsen, accused of fraud. The investors claim that Nielsen had received verbal authorization to do this, which Birkeland denies having given.

Neither party has wished to contribute to this case. Nor has NRK succeeded in obtaining a comment from Tor-Erik Nielsen.

– From the plaintiff’s side, we have no comment on the case, writes the three investors’ lawyer, Jørgen Vangsnes.

Birkeland’s lawyer is John Erik Aarsheim.

– This has been a very burdensome case for Birkeland for almost three years. He is looking forward to presenting his side of the case and putting it behind him, says Aarsheim.

The parties will meet in Hordaland District Court on 8 April.

Interest of 240 percent

It was in May 2021 that coffee heir Berent Friele signed a loan contract in which he borrowed 30 million from the gray market over two months.

Then Friele was deeply involved in the scandal that hit the UN organization UNOPS, which, among other things, led to former Minister of Justice Grete Faremos goodbye as leader. The coffee heir is said to have bet and lost hundreds of millions on a technology that was to be used to set up hundreds of thousands of houses in Africa, according to DN.

In order to get the gray market loan, Friele had to both provide security and undertake to pay over NOK 12 million in fees for the loan. This corresponds to an annual interest rate of 240 percent.

Friele did not want to comment on the matter to NRK.

The three investors who gave the loan and are now trying to have Birkeland’s farm forcibly sold are:

• Property billionaire Edgar Haugen.
• Former lawyer and investor Einar Jørgen Greve.
• Property investor Knut Marius Bull Stokke.

Haugen has, according to Capital’s list over the 400 richest, a fortune of NOK 18 billion. Greve and Stokke had NOK 138 million and NOK 72 million respectively in net worth, according to the tax figures for 2022.

At stake for the trio is NOK 29.5 million and outstanding interest which has been defaulted by Friele.

They hope to cover this by having Birkeland’s farm forcibly sold.

Shouldn’t have been the first time

The investors’ lawyer, Jørgen Vangsnes, writes in his closing submission that Birkeland was both aware of the risk he was taking on and that he should be well paid for it.

In total, Friele is said to have committed to pay NOK 7.5 million to those who provided collateral for the gray market loan. It is unknown how much of this Birkeland was entitled to.

Birkeland should have only been tipped a small amount to provide the family farm as security, according to the closing statement of Birkeland’s lawyer, John Erik Aarsheim.

He writes in the final submission that Birkeland was not represented by a lawyer in connection with the loan transaction. According to the lawyer, the farmer was given little information about the risk of the loan and what it would be used for.

However, it would not be the first time he had put the farm up as security for a gray market loan.

The farm is said to have been put up as security in 2015 as well, and for this the investors’ lawyer claims that Birkeland should have been paid over NOK 3 million.

Not only about making a deposit

Nor was Birkeland alone in providing security for bankrupt Berent Friele.

Property investor Per Arne Hanakam also put up a property as security for the gray market loan.

Hanakam was for a number of years a close partner with the mentioned financial adviser Tor-Erik Nielsen, who according to the investors had been authorized to sign the pledge declaration for the farmer.

Nielsen and Hanakam are under police investigation for serious economic crime. Both have pleaded not guilty.

In contrast to Birkeland, however, Hanakam is said to have sold the mortgaged plot, and the three investors are said to have received 12.5 million in connection with the settlement.

Extensive witness list

A number of key financial players have been called in as witnesses in the trial.

Both financial advisor Tor-Erik Nielsen and local property investor Knut Jørgen Hauge have been called as witnesses by the plaintiffs.

Hauge was a central figure in the dispute over the ownership of Zachariasbryggen in the center of Bergen. Then he suffered financial defeat after a year-long legal battle. It was a company he controlled which is said to have had the aforementioned mortgage on Birkeland’s farm in 2015.

Birkeland’s lawyer has put both Friele and Einar Greve on the witness list. In addition, loan broker Jørn Vikøyr has been called as a witness.

According to the mortgage document registered on Birkeland’s plot, it was Finanspartner Vest, a company Vikøyr was a part owner of, that handled the paperwork with the registration of the mortgage.

Vikøyr was most recently mentioned as the owner of the loan mediation company Sarepta Invest in a disclosure in E24 about a gray market environment in Bergen which Finanstilsynet believes has operated illegally.