Written by Lars Abild, Economic Weekly
Feb 5, 2025
Everything indicated that Kasi ApS, led by Jesper Kasi Nielsen, had been checkmated in the showdown with the jewelry company Pandora.
Everything indicated that Kasi ApS by Jesper Kasi Nielsen had been checkmated in the showdown with the jewelry company Pandora – a C25 company on the stock exchange with a turnover of just over 31 billion last year – after the Maritime and Commercial Court refused to reopen the bankruptcy estate last year. After thorough investigations, the bankruptcy estate trustee, lawyer Boris Frederiksen, had given up on moving forward with the case. But Jesper Kasi Nielsen had not.
In the first round, he tried to have the bankruptcy estate reopened, among other things with reference to the new information that Økonomisk Ugebrev has been able to uncover, including indications of double-entry bookkeeping in Pandora with a good and a bad account for the central European subsidiary – Pandora CWE.
Recently, the Maritime and Commercial Court approved the reopening of the bankruptcy estate. At the same time, the Fraud Police are now entering the case with an ongoing investigation, as mentioned in the Economic Weekly.
Earlier this week, the Danish Economic Weekly revealed that the former undercover police, now the National Unit for Special Economic Crime, NSK, is investigating whether listed Pandora has defrauded Kasi ApS – the Kasi family's company – of a three-digit million amount in connection with an earn-out payment.
There is more at stake beneath the surface. The Kasi family has now also reopened the bankruptcy estate of Kasi ApS with a view to a new arbitration against Pandora. With the documents and new information that Økonomisk Ugebrev has presented, Pandora may be required to pay a larger three-digit million amount from Pandora to Kasi ApS in a new arbitration case.
Before it gets that far, several things need to fall into place.
Økonomisk Ugebrev is in possession of correspondence between Kasi ApS' lawyer Jeppe Viinberg on the one hand and the law firm Poul Schmidt by senior manager Thomas Dahl Sørensen and partner Boris Frederiksen on the other hand.
In a letter from 25 January 2025 from Jeppe Viinberg it states: "On behalf of my clients, Dorthe, Annette and Jesper Nielsen (the bailiffs ed.) I am contacting you on the basis that the Bankruptcy Court has decided last week to open the above-mentioned bankruptcy estate. My clients have instructed me to prepare a request to the Bankruptcy Court to have Boris Frederiksen removed as trustee due to incapacity. I have therefore prepared the attached drafts, which I will submit to the Bankruptcy Court tomorrow, if you do not do so yourself before 3.30 pm tomorrow, the 22nd.
January 2025 to me with a copy to the Probate Court voluntarily resigns as Trustee.”
According to what has been reported, this has not happened.
But correspondence from earlier shows what Boris Frederiksen knows. A letter from 1 February 2025 from him to the cashiers' lawyer states: "Dear Jeppe, Receipt of your email is hereby acknowledged. Since the bankruptcy estate has now been reopened and since your client states that he is in possession of funds belonging to the bankruptcy estate, I must point out that he is obliged to transfer the amount immediately, or alternatively provide sufficient information about where the amount is located so that it can be secured and transferred directly to the bankruptcy estate without his intervention."
In other words, the lawyers on both sides of the table confirm that the estate has now been opened.
And then Boris Frederiksen goes to the steel: "In relation to your previous inquiries and views on incompetence, I must reject the correctness of this and simply state that this is speculation without basis in reality. We have also been able to establish that your statement that the inquiry was supported by Brøndbyerne IF is not correct. It is therefore not a question of incompetence or that the information presented by you on behalf of Jesper Nielsen that the view on this is supported by the main creditors is correct."
In a series of articles, Økonomisk Ugebrev has described the showdown between the cashiers and Pandora, and in September 2024 we wrote: "About the case, chairman of listed Brøndby IF, Jan Bech, says: "We are a significant creditor. So we naturally have an interest in the case being followed to the end - and if it turns out that there has been foul play, then justice must be served. If it turns out that the bankruptcy estate can be reopened. And that there is a basis for a new arbitration, then it is our duty to try to get our receivables back."
Økonomisk Ugebrev has the letter of intent, which shows that Brøndby IF is included as a backup. Jan Bech explains that “if there are values that have passed by the company's shareholders, of course, and not least as a listed company, you have to find out about it.”
There appears to be disagreement between the parties about very basic matters, which otherwise appear to be documentable.
The next article will be about whether Boris Frederiksen will stick with the position of trustee, and whether he will support a new arbitration, paid with the new funds that are being offered to the bankruptcy estate. The showdown seems far from over.
Economic Weekly is still trying to get a comment from the large listed company, Pandora.
The Danish Weekly is also trying to get a comment from Boris Frederiksen ,