23.03.2009
Arms
dealers – the Riis-family
Where have all
the money gone?
An
introduction
Riis – a player in the arms
trafficking
In
previous articles we have uncovered information that points to the Riis-family as a player in the arms dealing business. As we
know, this business is quite profitable. Los Angeles Times has documented more
than 140 illicit arms trade flights in a period in 2004. In this regard they
interviewed several contractors connected to the arms trade business. These
contractors verified that Victor
Bout charged some $60.000 for each flight.[1]
Quite a lot of money one would have to agree. I have though got indications
that this “freight cost” is set too low, far too low in certain instances.
Necessary protection
Digging
into such a tensed and tabooed subject will always and almost immediately touch
an infected nerve. Two Norwegian media institutions – TV2 and Trygve Hegnar’s Finansavisen – seems to have been engaged in protecting
and supporting the Riis-family as they, alongside the
Riis-family themselves claims that they are poor and
that I am making them even poorer by executing the will (English translation) of the late Consul Riis.
Finding a lot of money/funds in the Riis-sphere with
no natural explanation attached to it, would obviously make the framework
around the conclusion of criminal activity even stronger. And what did I find?
You’ll see.
Arms dealing – Who cares?
My
motivations of writing this series of articles about Arms Dealing and the Riis-family in particular is to make awareness on how
little western peace-nations like Norway cares about this devastating business
and the consequences of this carelessness, not only for the poor people in the
countries and regions where the bullets finally rest to peace after passing
through some vital human tissue, but for the people that has been conned into
helping these criminals, like myself and several reputable Norwegian
politicians.
Instead of
fighting the arms dealing business in
As
mentioned in other articles; to carry out one concealed court case[2]
after the other is only possible by bribing lawyers, judges and other officials
in the system. In this regard it has been documented[3]
that the following Norwegian judges Ms. Hanne Tenden, Ms. Ina Strømstad and Msr. Kristin Helene Jahre Ramm has been bribed off to act on behalf of this family
and thus have assisted on keeping the truth about the Riis-family
concealed.
In
addition to this especially two lawyers – Ole Kristian
Aabø-Evensen and Ingjald Ørbeck Sørheim (the first one
mentioned in Legal500 as a white collar crime lawyer) – seems to have been
controlling the course of the events by handling the judges and the two media
institutions involved in this clandestine operation; TV2 (major Norwegian
commercial TV-channel controlled by the Norwegian socialist party) and Finansavisen (newspaper controlled by a Mr. Trygve Hegnar).
All the
above mentioned participants were well informed – prior to the launch of the
clandestine operation against me carried out in an attempt to stop me from
unveiling the truth about 1) the Riis-fortune in
Switzerland and how it was obtained; through arms dealing, and 2) the concealed
Nortraship funds with its millions of dollars belonging
to (but although kept away from) the Norwegian sailors since the WWII – about
the Riis-family’s business
and their concealed fortune abroad.
1997 – the first step in helping the poor family
In 1997,
while I was a law student at the University of Oslo, the Riis-family
contacted me[4]
and begged me on their knees to help them fighting back/vindicating their
inheritance which they claimed that the Norwegian Government had stolen from
them during the shipping crisis in the early 1970’.[5]
At this
point in 1997 the family claimed to be flat broke, after having spent all their
funds – they told me – on lawyers and courts in
The first
thing I had to do was thus to apply for free legal aid. The late Consul Einar Riis had already been
refused free legal aid by the county governor, the former Prime Minister Mr. Kåre Willoch, but I wanted to
have another go on this. I met up with Mr. Willoch
early in the spring of 1998. Following this meeting he opened the door for me
into one of the most secret archives in the basement of the Parliament
building, the Hilmar Reksten-case. I copied
some 2.000 documents from this classified archive, documents which later on
became an important part of the base of the law suit against the Ministry of
Justice (a case that we won on
Mr. Willoch also kindly referred me to the Ministry of Justice
in regards to the application for free legal aid. After some meetings with
Deputy Director General Mr. Jan Gotaas (who later on
was found dead[6]
after “falling” out of his office in 2003) in the spring of 1998, I managed to
obtain free legal aid for three of the most important cases in this complex,
worth some $600.000.[7]
Now everything was finally, after almost 30 years of judicial mistreatment,
settled for a fair legal battle in Norwegian courts, against the Norwegian
Government, I thought.
I will not
go into details of the proceedings in these cases in this article as the point
of today is to uncover to what extent not only I have been fooled by this arms
dealer-family but also the common reader and viewer of Norwegian news. Early in
2001 I was named “the Student that solved a miscarriage of justice” this after
being mentioned as the major player to Riis-family’s
legal victory in the City Court of Oslo, granting the family some $6 million
(the Attorney General appealed this judgment which later on was settled, see
note 6). At this point every Scandinavian viewer and reader believed that this
family was flat broke, had been betrayed by the best lawyers in Norway, had
been mistreated by the Norwegian courts for 30 years and that they without
doubt deserved whatever they could get of justice. This picture, solely drawn
by the Riis-family’s members, was nothing but false.
Poor but oh so rich
As I have
documented in an earlier article (sorry, it’s in Norwegian. Please use Google language for now) on this subject, the Riis-family – when they approached me in 1997 acting as a
poor and judicially systematically raped family – owned a small village of some
34 apartments in the Canary Islands, Club de Mar. On top of this they either owned or leased
estates in Italy, Sardinia (Italy), Norway, USA, and Monaco worth millions of
dollars, this in addition to concealed funds in numerous Swiss and Monegasque
accounts and safe-deposit boxes. Accordingly the family were not entitled to free legal aid, and had
never been. Applying for and accepting the free legal aid was thus nothing but
a wilfully deception of Norwegian authority. Fooling me to find a solution and
a settlement with the Ministry of Justice and by this making the Government to
pay some $8 million to the family clearly places this family on the podium as
one of the greatest impostors in Norwegian history.
In April 2008
I was invited to a meeting in
Kenneth Patrizio Riis
Mr.
Kenneth Patrizio Riis – the
best friend of Mr. Alessandro Sangue, Mr. David Paul Tokoph’s right hand in Africa (see this article for more in-dept information on Mr. Riis) – has according to his father never done a good days
work before he started his career as a captain with the Italian carrier Meridiane.
According
to himself he is married – which he is
not[8]
according to these official Norwegian documents from the National Register – with two children in
Verona, and is working as a captain with the Italian carrier Meridiana. According to his father he had a yearly income
of some $60.000. As of today it seems less likely that he has ever been
piloting aircrafts for Meridiana or any other passenger
carrier as he is struggling with a mental problem, and has no updated medical certificates
since 1997. His income becomes thus important in regards to his economical
status. If this person should appear with a fortune not corresponding to his
income, something is wrong and needs to be checked. Italian authorities have,
by the way, refused to answer upon my request on Mr. Riis’
status as a pilot.
If what
the Riis-family told me in 1997 was the truth, then
they wouldn’t appear with any additional estates/fortune besides the known ones
in Norway and Italy. On the other hand, if the family were found to be well
off, although they have almost no income, this could indicate involvement in
some profitable criminal business and there would be a reason to have a closer
look on their whereabouts. As mentioned before, I have solid information that
the Riis-family were involved in arms dealing, not
only from Riis’ Italian Director, but also from
concealed company files. I had thus a reason to check this family, and this is
what I found in regards to Mr. Kenneth Patrizio Riis’ wealth in
Mr.
Kenneth Patrizio Riis owns
real estates in downtown Miami, Florida; Fort Worth, Texas, New York City, and in San Francisco. As you will observe, this is the same Kenneth Patrizio Riis as proclaimed to be the son of the late Consul Riis. Here are some pictures from the addresses:
Miami Down
town :
Kenneth Patrizio Riis is also connected
to several other real estates in the USA as well as in Canada. Due to further
investigation we cannot reveal these addresses yet. In addition to this Mr. Patrizio Riis owns estates at:
Verona,
Italy : Viale
Andrea Palladio, 10, 37138 Verona.
The
estimated value of the estates is under investigation, but it surely amounts to
several million dollars, far above Mr. Kenneth Patrizio
Riis’ economical means.
* * *
By the
result of this investigation it becomes quite irrelevant whether Mr. Patrizio Riis has been working
for Meridiana or not, as it seems pretty clear the he
would never have had the means (with an Italian airline captain salary) to buy
even one of these estates in the US in addition to his expensive homes in
Verona and Sardinia.
Arms
dealers are supposed to answer to the prosecuting and judging authority in any
countries as soon as there are evidences on such crimes. In this regard we are
not talking about the arms dealing in particular, but rather about the consequences of their cruel business;
war crimes, crimes against the humanity, torture, etc., crimes where no
statutes of limitation are running.
Again I
urge the responsible authority in the USA, Norway and Italy to act according to
law and according to what is expected from a responsible Government and
investigate this case from the base that I have unveiled for them.
Herman J Berge
Luxembourg
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