Fraud Investigation by Petter Gottschalk

Author:Petter Gottschalk
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351139045
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Economic dimension: motive

This is a case of corporate crime rather than occupational crime. Corporate crime is committed to benefit the organization financially, while occupational crime is committed to benefit the individual financially. The motive for the eight offenders, in particular Larsen, was power and influence. Claiming that SOS Racism was the largest within the Racism family in Europe seemed important to him. Maslow suggested a pyramid of human needs that can be adapted to the case of white-collar criminals. It seems that Larsen wanted to gain power, status, acceptance and, potentially, admiration and fame and was prepared to use fraudulent means.

Larsen had been in powerful positions before. He was a trade union activist and a communist politician in the municipality. He was a member of the communist party for many years before he was excluded from the party. Larsen started his career as a blue-collar worker in an aluminum plant. It was by means of a coup that Larsen and some other communists took over key positions in SOS Racism in the early 1990s. He became chairman of the property development company Activist Property (‘Aktivisteiendom’). Larsen was nicknamed ‘Joe S’ after Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator (Flydal, 2010). He was seen as the personal owner and head of the communist party Serve the People (Sjølie, 2008).

Some of the financial gain from government fraud was needed to finance the communist organization Serve the People. Several key individuals at Serve the People were employed by SOS Racism, receiving a salary but given no work assignments (Flydal, 2010). Thus, a secondary motive in the economic dimension for Larsen was being enabled to build a new communist party organization after being excluded from the Norwegian Workers’ Communist Party.

According to the court document, Larsen was in charge of the money at SOS Racism (Haugaland, 2016: 49):

Kjell Gunnar Larsen was elected main financial officer in SOS Racism in 1995 and had overall responsibility for finances in the organization until the bankruptcy of SOS Racism in May 2013. Kjell Gunnar Larsen handled the organization’s accounts and approved invoices. As the main cashier, Larsen had responsibility for application processes in relation to various government support schemes. Kjell Gunnar Larsen had employer responsibility for employees in SOS Racism.

Several witnesses in court said that Larsen’s “words were like a law” to them.

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