Bjorn Stiedl, who was convicted in 2004 of defrauding £2 million from the pensioners of the Balfron Group, has paid over £2 million in compensation to the victims. The SFO has today authorised that the money be released to the fund trustees of the "Clarion Group Retirement and Dependants Benefits Scheme".
Background
Bjorn Stiedl (date of birth 30.01.61), a Danish national, was sentenced on 12 August 2005 at Southwark Crown Court by His Honour Judge Wadsworth to four and a half years' imprisonment for fraud. He had been convicted of conspiracy to defraud on 23 November 2004. He had acquired a pension fund (the Clarion Group Retirement and Dependants Benefits Scheme) of Balfron Ltd., a defunct Glasgow-based company which had been involved in the fork-lift truck distribution business. He arranged for a loan of £2.135 million to be paid out of the pension fund, as part of a complex series of transactions. Neither the loan nor any interest was ever repaid.
Following his conviction, Mr Stiedl had volunteered to pay £2.817 million to the pension fund. This offer was taken into consideration by HHJ Wadsworth in determining the sentence. However, Mr Stiedl did not honour his offer to pay the sum. Confiscation proceedings were thus commenced and a timetable set down by HHJ Wadsworth.
Assets connected to Mr Stiedl were traced by SFO investigators to a British Virgin Islands offshore trust holding deposits in a bank in Jersey. Mr Stiedl insisted that his total assets were actually only worth £300,000 - an assertion which the SFO did not accept. The SFO made it clear that they were prepared to litigate in the British Virgin Islands in order to demonstrate that the trust was a front for Mr Stiedl.
A settlement was finally reached whereby Mr Stiedl would provide £2,050,000 compensation to the defrauded pensioners and £200,000 in costs to the SFO, both of which have now been done. This represents all the assets that the SFO was able to trace.
(Co-conspirator Carsten Iversen, also a Danish national, was tried separately and sentenced to two years' imprisonment on 30 June 2005 and has paid the £100,000 compensation ordered at his sentencing)
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