Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 7th December 2008

Following a disappearing act via Dubai, the managing director of IT-Factory has turned himself over to the police in Los Angeles after he was charged in a Danish court in absentia with fraud for Dkr 500 million.

Norwegian-born Stein Bagger, the managing director of one of Denmark’s fastest growing businesses, IT-Company, turned himself over to the police in Los Angeles on Saturday, after a Danish court had charged him with systematic fraud amounting to at least Dkr 500 million.

As Bagger had left Denmark for Dubai, before disappearing, his court appearance was in absentia. Danish prosecutors are in the process of extraditing Bagger.

IT-Company has now been declared bankrupt, just weeks after the magazine Computerworld named it Denmark’s best IT company in 2008.

But IT sector observers told journalists months ago they suspected that IT-Company’s impressive growth was based on dubious leasing-circus practices, which were being uncovered by the daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende and Computerworld when Bagger absconded a week before he turned himself in.

Since then the media and others have wondered why IT-Company’s board, its accountants and major bank connections failed to spot the dubious practices, which had been ongoing for two or three years.