Law
Former Yara executive director Ken Wallace (71) is sentenced to seven years in prison in the Borgarting court of appeal. There is a powerful intensification from the judgment of the district court.
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Borgarting court of appeal believes that the former Yara executive director Ken Wallace will be sentenced to seven years in prison for gross corruption in Libya and India.
- on Tuesday 23. august started the appeal in the Borgarting court of appeal against four former Yara International-tops. The four is the former president and ceo Thorleif Enger and the former executive directors Tor Holba, Ken Wallace and Daniel Clauw. They are indicted for bribery in connection with the negotiations in India and Libya. All four refuse straffskyld. They were convicted in Oslo district court, but appealed, and the judgment is therefore not final and enforceable. French Clauw was only sentenced for the relationship relating to the negotiations in India.
- in the Spring of 2011 started the Økokrim investigation of Yara, one of the world’s largest gjødselselskaper. The Norwegian state owns 36 per cent of the shares in Yara. The background for Økokrims investigation were suspicions that Yara had paid bribes in connection with the negotiations for a plant in Libya. Parallel put Yara-the board of directors started a private investigation in the direction of the attorney firm Wiersholm. Auditors concluded in the summer of 2012 that it was paid large sums of money in “unacceptable payments” from Yaras subsidiary in Switzerland to råvareleverandører in Eastern Europe.
- Økokrim-the investigation ended with Yara in 2014 acknowledged three cases of gross corruption and adopted a fine of 295 million kroner – the largest foretaksbot in Norway.
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The arising of the judgment which was delivered on Tuesday morning.
There is significantly more stringent than tingrettsdommen from 2015, when Wallace was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.
Ken Wallace was the legal director of the Yara over a number of years. In 2014 he and three other Yara-tops prosecuted for gross corruption. In the court of appeal was Wallace the only one who was found guilty.
Stricter punishment
the Court of appeal points out that Yara entered into agreements with the sons of two central government officials in India and Libya.
In the aggravating point the court of appeal that the corruption was well planned and that it was actively disguised by entering into the consultancy to two sons.
the Court also points out that Wallace is set in a very central location in Yara as legal director and member of executive committee, and also was the top responsible for, among other things, the company’s antikorrupsjonsarbeid.
the Court of appeal also shows that the “korrupsjonens scope is very centrally located by the straffutmålingen”.
“Ken Wallace is found guilty of having contributed to the payment of bribes totalling approximately 14,5 million – calculated at the rate of u.s. dollars on the respective utbetalingstidspunktene. The scope of the total bestikkelsene that Wallace offered or contributed to the to offer, however, was significantly higher”, states the verdict, where it appears that the two agreements had a total value of 43,5 million.
In the lenient direction, found the court of appeal little to remark, arising it in a press release from the court. Where emphasized, however, that Wallace has not achieved some form of personal gain by the criminal actions.
Rejected to bevisvurderingen
DN have not succeeded to get a comment from Wallace’s lawyer Arild Dyngeland Tuesday afternoon.
Since the issue of guilt in the matter was settled by the jury at the beginning of December of last year, said Wallace’s attorney, Arild Dyngeland the following:
– We don’t bevisvurderingen, but we must relate it, said Dyngeland.
Borgarting court Of appeal was Ken Wallace is the only one of the four Yara-the peaks that were found guilty of charges of gross corruption. The other three were acquitted. The issue of guilt was settled by the jury at the beginning of December.
“the Initiative came from some other”
In the district court and the court of appeal emphasized Ken Wallace that he acted on orders from the other.
I’m a good soldier, but I was not the boss. It was not my project, ” said the former legal director of Yara to a friend in a phone call that was rendered in the court.
the Court of appeal notes the following about this:
“There is nothing to suggest that Wallace, on their own initiative decided to make arrangements about the payment of bribes. The appellate court finds that the initiative came from someone else in the organization, without bevisførselen in the case has given the answer to who this was”, is named in the judgment.
the Court would not give this any importance for straffutmålingen.
“Ken Wallace was no subordinate employee of Yara; he was the company’s legal director. No matter who took the initiative to bestikkelsene, could Wallace – with his professional merits, and in virtue of his position in senior management – have refused to abet the criminal acts, without the risk of consequences for themselves”, states the verdict.
the Dn has so far not succeeded to get a comment from the former Yara ceo Thorleif Engers defender Ellen Holager Andenæs. The jury in the court of appeal answered no on the issue of guilt for the Meadows.
“Norway’s most serious korrupsjonssak”
Førstestatsadvokat Marianne Djupesland in Økokrim noting that the court of appeals sharpened the punishment from the district court.
the Case is perhaps the most serious korrupsjonssaken as is the judgment in the Uk when it comes to the size of the bestikkelsesbeløpet, because it is committed by a member of the executive management team and because it relates to bribery of high-ranking government officials in Libya and India, ” says Djupesland in a press release.
– Enacted for gross corruption is ten years in prison. Here are also two serious cases, and it is therefore correct that the court of appeals essentially has sharpened the punishment from the district court, she says.
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