BAR HARBOR, Oct. 5, 2022 - Mikael Roenes, founder of the aquaculture company which wants to build two salmon farms in Frenchman Bay is accused of fraud again, according to published reports.
Reporter Harald Berglihn broke the story that Roenes, co-founder of Norway-based cod farming operation Norcod and the proposed Maine salmon farming project American Aquafarms, has been ordered to surrender NOK 20 million (€1.9 million/$1.9 million) in assets following a lawsuit brought by investors in a Norwegian court case.
The Agder district court in southern Norway ruled in August and September that Roenes's assets should be seized following complaints filed against him by billionaires Ada Kjeseth and Bjorn Mathias Apeland.
The seized assets are connected to loans and share purchases related to Roenes and his business, IntraFish sister publication DN reported.
Roenes founded Norway-based cod farming operation Norcod, as well as Maine-based project American Aquafarms in 2019. He is no longer involved with Norcod, and the Maine project is currently in limbo after facing community opposition and problems securing permitting, according to the report.
Ada Kjeseth, who together with her family owns the investment management funds company Tekas, said she lent NOK 5 million (€477,973/$476,102) to Roenes when he was in the process of raising NOK 75 million (€7.2 million/$7.1 million) in a convertible loan to the Blue Future business for, among other things, cod production in Norway through subsidiary Purecod.
Kjeseth said she was swayed by his claims of previous success with the establishment and listing of Norcod.
Apeland's complaint centers on the repayment of loans and an agreement with Roenes in relation to the buyback of Apeland's 20 percent stake in the Blue Future business, which he acquired in 2021. Apeland sat on the board of the group briefly.
The allegations are not the first time Roenes has been connected with financial misdeeds.
In 2008, Roenes was sentenced to four years imprisonment for defrauding investors for a total of NOK 42 million, DN reported.
"I am so incredibly disappointed that a man who has done what he did and has paid for it is doing the same thing again," Kjeseth told DN. "It is difficult to understand."
Roenes denies the latest allegations of defrauding the investors, and said the Maine and Purecod projects are proceeding as planned, though he admits there is a liquidity squeeze.
"No one wants to lose money here," Roenes said of his projects. He said he intends to settle any outstanding debts with investors.
Roenes' ability to pay back any amounts owed is unclear. The executive owned a million dollar apartment in Tjuvholmen in Oslo, which was seized by creditors, and a lavish 178 square-meter penthouse apartment at the Hovden ski resort in the Bykle municipality through a separate company.
A comparison of Norwegian and American law would be interesting here. What exactly constitutes fraud in the non-repayment of debt? Had this non-repayment occurred in the United States would it be legally considered fraud or just default? Does Norwegian law preclude the existence of a Norwegian Donald Trump?
I knew something was wrong with this company when I went to their FB page and commented... and I was the only one with a negative comment. From all of the lovely comments and their so called work in the community nonsense there was clearly something amiss. Now we find out that we have entrusted a greedy criminal with the environmental welfare of people and place.