Arms dealers – the Riis-family

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Arms dealers – the Riis-family

Mon, 23/03/2009 - 22:16
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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 (Victor Bout's file) 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 Norway, and in particular the Riis-family’s business, the Norwegian Government has pointed all their guns against me, the messenger, the digger. This protective reaction after being provided with facts about arms dealing, money laundering (in particular in Monaco and Switzerland), tax evasion, concealing of funds in Switzerland, Norway, Monaco, Sardinia, USA, etc., more than indicates how bad things are in Norway.

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 Norway. All the best lawyers that you could think of had been engaged in the family’s numerous law suits and had then allegedly betrayed them.

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 February 28 2001).

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 previous 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.

Rome – April 2008
In April 2008 I was invited to a meeting in Rome with one of the late Consul Riis’ directors as well as with one of his secretaries. In this meeting they both expressed how loaded with money the Riis-family was in the 1970-80’ and how they would hide away their wealth (money and sport cars) in Monaco in order to keep a low profile. I can assure you that the family weren’t less loaded during the 1990’ and the 2000’.

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 USA:

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   :

Box 111721, MIAMI, FL 33111
.

New York               :

250 W 50TH ST, New York, NY 10019
(not confirmed).

Fort Worth Tex.      :

2503 Park Hill CT E, Fort Worth, TX 76110
.

San Francisco         : 1700 BUSH # 12, San Francisco, CA 94109.

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.

Sardinia                 : unknown address as of yet.

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

 


[1] Merchant of Death - Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible:  Douglas Farah & Stephen Braun, 2007, page 263.

[2] Administering a civil court case without the knowledge of the other party seems to be a Norwegian phenomenon. I have been the victim of such miscarriage of justice several times, both before the late Consul was killed as well as after. 

[3] For now these articles are only in Norwegian.

[4] At this point in the spring of 1997 I was one of three editors of the Student Law Review, Stud.Jur.

[5] One of the richest Norwegian heirs at that time, Mrs. Amelia Riis, claimed to have been a victim of a high rank political game staged by the ruling socialist labour party ending with the DNB NOR seizure of her inheritance, the MS Sognefjell, a 37.000 dwt bulk carrier, valued to some $12 million in 1974.

[6] On June 5 2003 I managed to negotiate the largest private settlement (some € 7 million) between the Norwegian Government and any private individual. Just a few weeks after this settlement agreement was signed, Mr. Gotaas was most likely murdered by the so called “defenestration-technique”, as he for no reason at all “fell out” from his office on the seventh floor, and landed on the roof of the cafeteria on the ground floor of the Government head quarters building in Oslo.

[7] There were of course other persons working behind the curtain, helping this family on this matter, but for now I am not in the position to make this public.

[8] Sivilstand – ugift, means: Marital status – not married.