Journalist Lars Abild, Economic Weekly
Feb 10, 2025
The Belgian consulting firm Deminor, which specializes in investigating whether listed companies have cheated on the scales, will reportedly investigate Pandora, internal communications show.
The Fraud Police – also called the National Unit for Special Crimes – is currently investigating whether Pandora has previously operated with double bookkeeping, which may have cost bonuses of several hundred million for the now bankrupt Kasi aps.
Economic Weekly has previously uncovered that there were internal results in Pandora CWE that were much higher than those Pandora CWE reported to the authorities. The suspicion is supported by the fact that managers in the company, whom Economic Weekly has spoken to, were paid bonuses from the much higher result, which would have provided an earn-out payment to the Kasi family in the three-digit million amount.
The fact that NSK has entered the case, as first described in Økonomisk Ugebrev, generated massive press coverage last week, but now Kasi-Jesper and his family have gone a step further.
They have contacted the Belgian consultancy firm Deminor, which has previously pursued the former CEO of Danske Bank, Thomas Borgen. Deminor is known for pursuing listed companies suspected of irregularities that may have cost the companies' shareholders losses.
With a reply from Deminor to the case's lawyer a few days ago, Økonomisk Ugebrev can now reveal how the company conducts its business: "We are very experienced in funding collective securities cases, inside and outside Denmark. We assist institutional investors by providing "no-cure, no-pay, no-risk" funding arrangements and we assist with evidence gathering (including transaction data, legal standing documents, custodian statements, POAs for the law firm, et cetera). We also bring access to our global network of damage calculation and causation experts to the table and a ton of experience with complex cross-border collective securities proceedings and settlements.”
Last week, the Danish Economic Weekly tried, without success, to get a comment from Pandora about NSK's involvement in the case. Kasi's lawyer wrote in an email to Pandora's management and board of directors, which they received today:
"We have entered into a collaboration with the law firm Deminor, which is now preparing a class action lawsuit against Pandora A/S regarding price manipulation and systematic fraud in connection with the sale of the majority stake from Axcel (Christian Frigast) in 2014."
Christian Frigast is vice chairman of Pandora's board and has been involved, so to speak, in all the crucial years.
If Deminor gets involved, one theory is that share buyers may have been taken advantage of in the following way. Pandora does not pay the correct three-digit million amount to Kasi ApS, which improves the results of listed Pandora A/S, thereby artificially keeping the share price up. To the disadvantage of those who bought shares in Pandora in the form of lack of knowledge from the exchanges that handled the trades.
Whether this is theory or empty threats is unclear, but right now the cashiers are writing to Pandora that they want a compensation claim of one billion kroner. And also that interviews are underway with international media outlets Bloomberg and the Financial Times about the case.
Economic Weekly seeks a comment from Pandora on the matter.