Finance Credit

Background

Before Finance Credit, Stensrud had built up the debt collection company Forretningsforum, which became Norway's largest collection agency before it was taken over by Intrum Justitia in the late 1980s. He was also active in reserve-officer organisations, serving as president of the Interallied Confederation of Reserve Officers from 1990 to 1992. A later clothing venture, Display Textiles AS, went bankrupt amid reports of incomplete bookkeeping, and Stensrud had earlier received a suspended sentence for an attempted fraud involving a false bank guarantee.

Kristoffersen, from Hammerfest, owned the Oslo factoring and collection company Inter Factor AS. In 1992 Dagens Næringsliv reported that it was under police investigation over its handling of client funds, and clients repeatedly complained of late or missing settlements. In 1995 Kristoffersen received a two-year bankruptcy disqualification in connection with the bankruptcy of another of his companies, Norsk Jernvare Import. Around 1996/97 the sister company Inter Kreditt lost its collection licence, and the business continued under the Finance Credit name.

The two men went into partnership in 1995 and set up Finance Credit Ltd in London that April. The Norwegian operation, Finance Credit Norge, also administered a series of founder-owned special-purpose companies named Faktura Finans. The business model was to buy clients' invoices shortly after they fell due at around 97 per cent of face value, collect the full amount, and cover the risk through credit insurance.

Founders

Trond Kristoffersen

Trond Kristoffersen (13 August 1956 – August 2013) was born in Hammerfest. In addition to his prison and compensation sentences, he was barred from engaging in independent trade and from holding senior or board positions in companies. He was imprisoned in Ullersmo prison from 2007, after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. After six years he was released after lodging an appeal, and he died in August 2013.

Torgeir Stensrud

Torgeir Stensrud (1 July 1949 – 27 September 2015) was chairman of Finance Credit, a former leader of the Interallied Confederation of Reserve Officers, and a military officer. In 2014 he managed "the Way Back", a project in which former inmates used road cycling to help rebuild their lives. He died in 2015.

Finance Credit Ltd in the United Kingdom lost about £4.5 million on the contractor Stodgell Ltd, and its other main client, North West Heating & Plumbing, went into administration in 2002 owing about £9.2 million. Nordlandsbanken lent about NOK 220 million for the British operation without obtaining a debenture over the British companies. Subsidiaries were founded in Denmark and Finland in 1999; the Finnish company's first large purchase, Libyan state receivables, never yielded any money. In Sweden the founders set up eCredit AB and planned a Stockholm stock exchange listing for late 2002.

Trials and criticism

Kristoffersen was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment on 19 October 2004, and Stensrud to seven years in 2005. Jahr argues that the convictions did not explain how the founders could borrow so much, often without written agreements, and criticises Økokrim for not examining the role of the lending banks or the clients' losses.