Gourock Division

"Røkke chose to write out a check for 7,000 dollars from the account of Karina Fisheries Inc. at Peoples Bank. Then he neatly put it in an envelope, wrote a pleasant letter, and mailed the supposed payment. 'Supposed' because of course, there was no coverage on the check. And one can imagine how the management of Rapp Hydema reacted to this maneuver. Here they had trusted and supported a young upstart, and the thanks they got was being kept at bay with sweet talk and rubber checks! Suddenly, Røkke had as much goodwill as a porcupine in a nudist camp. He went from being a promising challenger to something of a nightmare for his creditors. For Rapp Hydema was far from alone; Røkke could likely have gathered a small May 17 parade of creditors if he had wished it. It turned out that he had promised and guaranteed in a similar style all around the town. Yet, he continued to issue worthless guarantees to extract even more money from the gullible suppliers. For example, there was no coverage for the personal guarantee Kjell Inge Røkke handwrote on February 24th of the same year to the cable supplier Gourock Division in Ballard. There he knew Doug Turnbull, and the firm supplied fishing equipment for 75,000 dollars which Røkke and his wife Kari personally guaranteed: "We also guarantee that Karina Corporation and Karina Fisheries Inc. will pay the debt to Gourock Division." Signed by Kjell Inge Røkke, both for himself and for the two companies."

"Most creditors were patient, but patience had its limits. Doug Turnbull and Gourock Division reached their limit on June 26, 1985. They still had not received their last 60,000 dollars, so Doug confronted Kjell Inge and put the knife to his throat. The outcome was another worthless letter, a so-called non-negotiable debt note, where Gourock got a lien on the fish aboard the "Karina Explorer". And so was everyday life at Karina Fisheries. The elastic was stretched further than advisable, creditors called and nagged, and Kari sat in the office calming them down. "This is how this business is," says Tor Tollessen at Lunde Maritime. "Fishermen usually have money just twice a year, and in many ways, we suppliers become a kind of bank with large outstanding amounts.""