American Seafoods

"It is easy to see what Røkke is thinking about. He believes a system with fixed quotas is coming. And he assumes that the quotas will be distributed based on historical results: The more one has fished in recent years, the higher the ITQ allocation. This could mean Røkke's golden coup. Then he could get the right to fish pollock for billions every single year as a gift from the American authorities. "We believe that ITQ will come in one form or another – sooner or later," says Bernt O. Bodal, the head of American Seafoods. He sees clear arguments for eliminating today's race fishing where everyone has enormous overcapacity to grab as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Today, the people onboard work almost around the clock for the little over two months the season lasts."

"In Norway, Greenpeace is a ridiculed and derided organization. In the USA, they have powerful allies and good connections in Congress in Washington DC. The fight against Kjell Inge Røkke is political. Greenpeace intends to throw a spanner in the works and prevent Røkke's goal of conquering ever-new fish resources. The main battle will be over so-called individual transferable quotas (ITQ). The authorities want to end the dangerous and resource-wasting derby fishing by instead distributing the quotas to the companies in advance so that they can fish calmly and have longer seasons. American Seafoods wants such quotas. The quotas are like securities with the right to a certain amount of pollock. They can be bought and sold."

"In Seattle, Røkke poached one of the competitors' best people, Ed Lutrell. The experienced director was tasked with building up the newly founded fishing company. With several hundred employees, it was no small feat, and the choice of name indicated that Røkke was thinking big: “We said: The company is owned by Norwegians, financed by the Norwegian state, and operated with ships from Norway. Let's call it American Seafoods,” jokes Ed Lutrell when he looks back. The choice of name was hardly coincidental – the more American the company appeared, the greater the chances of not provoking the opponents to close the loophole in the law."

"Røkke was bold enough to continue using American Seafoods as his own money bin, without caring about the partners. In total, he took out over 50 million kroner. Then Møgster and Torgersen found a loophole: For every dollar Røkke took out for himself, they put 50 cents into a separate account. Thus, they had also secured a straw into the cash register."

"It ended with an attempt at a palace coup, where Møgster and Torgersen misjudged the situation. The partners had money in reserve, but they thought they could "dry out" Kjell Inge Røkke by not providing new capital. In secret, they intended to run American Seafoods into the ground, force their partner out, and take over the ruins from the banks afterward. So, Møgster and Torgersen tightened their purse strings and procrastinated as much as they could."

"The final straw was when Kjell Inge Røkke on one occasion took out a loan for 20 million dollars on behalf of American Seafoods and used Harald Torgersen's name on the loan document – allegedly without Torgersen's consent. There was an uproar and Torgersen immediately resigned from his position as president of the company. It looked bleak in every way, both for Røkke and the fishing company. Røkke was saved by the Norwegian real estate market which began to look up. There were significant values in front of the eyes of the banks, and they accepted that Kjell Inge Røkke provided a personal guarantee for the debt to save the shipping company. Without the real estate values in Norway, it would never have worked, and Kjell Inge Røkke was furious that the partners had failed in such a serious situation."

"For all parties, this was an excellent construction. The bank needed business, Røkke needed loans. Soon, American Seafoods became one of IS Banken's most important customers, while climbing the list as one of the bank's largest owners. IS Banken was used as a financing source, among other things for a distant project in Vero Beach, Florida. Here, 50 million kroner came from the small commercial bank on Norway's west coast."

"It started tough, but ended pitifully for the environmentalists. First, their boats got stuck in the oil booms, then they couldn't secure the banner. "I was almost tempted to help them," Røkke taunted Greenpeace on television after the hapless action. From the deck of the "American Monarch," a unique banner was raised: "Greenpeace lies for money". But eventually, Greenpeace managed to display their message. Their banner was a malicious pun on American Seafoods' company slogan that they are the pride of the ocean; "Pride of the Seas": "American Monster – plunderer of the seas," was the environmentalists' verdict."

"Not a good testimony, then, from the lawyer. But then critics will object that it is exactly the lawyers who earn the most from these cases. American law is such that people who get injured in work accidents do not automatically receive compensation. Often they have to sue the employer, and many of the resource-poor Americans or Mexican guest workers on board do not have money for that. The solution is hungry lawyers who work on a "no cure, no pay" basis. This means that if the client does not win support and compensation, then the lawyer does not get a cent. On the contrary, the client and the lawyer share the profits. And then it becomes almost risk-free for any dissatisfied fisherman to sue American Seafoods."