Selling fake medical certificates to criminals

The head of the Oslo Military Medical Office, psychiatrist Pål H. Herlofsen sells false medical statements. Criminals who want to escape imprisonment can buy themselves free from imprisonment. Together with psychologist John Sandstrøm, he has a large number of known criminals on the customer list.

dn.no provides a summary of Dagens Næringsliv's revealing report. You get the whole story in DN Saturday.

- We apply in the first instance for a postponement, and then we continue to apply for pardon.

Psychologist John Sandstrøm leans over his desk.

- I will have 15,000 kroner for this. That's fine, unless we're having a psychiatrist or something. Then we usually charge 20,000 kroner. Ten to me and ten to him, right.

On the other side of the table is "Christian Skau", who will serve a prison sentence of one and a half years. He is willing to do anything to escape. What Sandstrøm does not know is that "Christian Skau" is in reality a journalist in Dagens Næringsliv. By greeting a former criminal client, "Skau" has entered the door of a psychologist who says he can conjure away his prison sentence. This will take place on 20 September this year.

- Bring 20,000 kroner

Sandstrøm picks up the phone and calls a private medical center, and arranges a meeting with a doctor, Dr. Eivind Borna. He needs a referral.

Sandstrøm takes out a white sheet and begins to take notes.

- You struggle with anxiety, depression, sleep problems, headaches, difficulty concentrating - and another thing - you see no meaning in life. Dot.

Based on the note, Borna will write a reference. Sandstrøm has known the patient for 20 minutes. The process is underway.

- I want as much impact as possible behind the application, so I would like to have the psychiatrist as well, says "Skau"

- Then you bring 20,000 kroner, and I will cover him. The psychiatrist is heavy. He is a forensic psychiatrist, and is a capacity.

- It is for the work itself, and the day you possibly get the whole package, then you can come up with some bonus.

Almost impossible to test

John Sandstrøm is one of Norway's most famous psychologists, and knows the prison system better than most. Not only is his client list a fairly useful "who-is-who" of known criminals in Norway. He has also been a prison psychologist for many years at Oslo District Prison, and he has been a forensic psychiatrist, appointed by the court to investigate the state of mind of criminals during the trial and while they are in prison. In recent years, he is best known for having participated in the selection of reality participants on TV3.

Medical certificates from a psychiatrist are almost impossible for the police, judges, and prison directors to review. The result is that more and more criminals come with papers that recommend postponing trials, giving penalty discounts, postponing prison sentences and more favorable conditions of imprisonment.

- Petrol on the fire

- I have paid Sandstrøm approximately 200,000 cash kroner. For that he was to arrange the best sentence that was to be found. In addition, he had to arrange lots of short leave where I would go for treatment with him.

The athletic man in his 40s who meets DN in a visiting room is a central figure in the robbery environment in Eastern Norway. He knows John Sandstrøm very well.

- He arranges everything as long as you pay. Postponement of trials and short leave costs NOK 20,000. Should he keep you outside the walls, it will really sting in your pocket. Then it costs hundreds of thousands of kroner. Always cash. If you show ability to pay, it's like gasoline on the fire. Then he just wants more, he tells DN.

And continues:

- He knows people in prison, and has good contacts in the police and the legal community. At the same time, he directs prisoners to lawyers with whom he collaborates. First and foremost to Tor Erling Staff.

Paid 100,000 kroner

In 1998, the petty criminal swindler Kristian Helgesen was sentenced to one year in prison at Vestre Slidre Prison. Helgesen was not particularly willing to serve his sentence. At home he had a pregnant cohabitant, in the bank he had money and he put on good tips and contacts in the stock market.

Sandstrøm said he could help me, but that I had to pay. I gave him 50,000 kroner in cash to arrange my leave from Vestre Slidre. When the leave was over, he was to have an additional 50,000 kroner to extend it. It went completely wrong, I had to see the prison doctor, and ended up in a closed ward in Oslo district prison, says Helgesen.

For several weeks, Helgesen sat in a closed ward. But help was not far away. Helgesen was moved out of prison and transferred to parole by the Salvation Army in Oslo. The transfer was directed by psychiatrist Pål Herlofsen.

Herlofsen wrote statements for Jim Wolden

On 13 February last year, at the same time as T5PC scammer Jim Wolden was scattering money in London, Larnaca and Dubai, psychiatrist Pål Herlofsen wrote a doctor's statement stating that Wolden was so depressed that he would hardly fly around the world in first class.

According to Herlofsen, Wolden suffers from reduced self-esteem and self-confidence and an experience of inferiority.

- Jim was never sick. In that case, it must have been drunk, says the former friend Kristian Helgesen, who, among other things, was in Cyprus with Wolden during the most "depressive" period.

Wolden's lawyer, John Christian Elden, says it was Wolden who came up with the sick leave reports on his own initiative.

- Did he seem sick to you?

- Jeg er ikke lege. Jeg måtte bare ta erklæringene han kom med til etterretning, sier Elden.

The tsunami psychiatrist

On December 5, 1995, a well-known art dealer and artist was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for rape. The verdict states that he raped his foreign domestic worker repeatedly. The rapes took place under threat of killing her if he did not get what he wanted. The first rape was so serious that the domestic worker needed medical help afterwards. Already the day after this, the art dealer contacted his old friend Pål Herlofsen and told him that he had problems he needed help solving. But not to himself. He wanted Herlofsen to talk to the maid.

Thereafter, the art dealer continued to rape the maid up to a couple of times a week for the next six months.

The psychiatrist, Pål Herlofsen, is a lieutenant colonel and chief of the Oslo Military Medical Office. But first and foremost, he is one of Norway's most recognized and experienced disaster psychiatrists. When the tsunami swept over south-east Asia, it was Herlofsen the Norwegian government sent down in a hurry. In addition to his managerial job at Akershus Fortress, he runs a private practice in Drammen. He is a very well-known forensic psychiatrist that Norwegian courts constantly rely on. The police in Drammen also state that they have used his expertise.

Want more money

"Christian Skau" is back at John Sandström's office. The psychologist chuckles merrily

- This is excellent. This opens up for the most part.

Dr. Borna's reference is: «Prolonged period of anxiety, depression. In need of treatment. Referred to treatment by a psychologist ». Just as Sandstrøm noted. In and out in ten minutes.

- Now you can read this, says Sandstrøm, and pushes a handwritten fax over the table.

Den er datert samme dag, og har brevhodet til Pål H. Herlofsen: «Vedrørende forespørsel om ny pasient. Tid og utgifter til omplassering vil beløpe seg høyere enn stipulert».

- What does this mean? asks «Skau»

- Herlofsen suggests that we make a deal, where we will follow up as best we can. And then you pay 30,000 kroner, and the day you possibly get away with it all, you pay 20,000 kroner more.

- You see, Herlofsen is a great commander in the military. One he worked with from there went to the blue-clad, ie the police, and there is a lot of contact. You can not abuse such things, but you use it sometimes, says Sandstrøm.

Friend of the police doctor

The "blue-clad" Sandstrøm refers to is police doctor Stein Ikdahl. He heads the police doctor's office in Oslo and is a member of the Forensic Medicine Commission, which supervises the activities of forensic psychiatrists. Ikdahl is perhaps Norway's largest capacity for psychiatric assessments of imprisonment, conditions and pardons.

The contact between Ikdahl and Herlofsen is easy to find. Ikdahl headed the Armed Forces' psychiatric outpatient clinic. Pål Herlofsen was his boss

Will bring Staff on the field

Now Sandstrøm will also find a new lawyer for "Skau".

- We prefer to choose a lawyer who can front this, and then we need a spearhead, one who follows up if there is a need for a little hard driving. Then we are happy to choose someone we work well with. So if it's okay with you, I'll call Staff and ask if he can meet you on Saturday. Then we knock. Ok?

No survey, 8,500 kroner in your pocket

Another DN journalist, under the pseudonym "Gøran Skog", seeks out Lieutenant Colonel, doctor and psychiatrist Pål H. Herlofsen, with stripes and two stars on his shoulders. He quickly greets the criminal "Gøran Skog", who is looking to escape a six-month prison sentence.

- I want as light a sentence as possible, then - if I can not let go completely.

- Do you have a psychiatric history?

- No, I do not have it.

Now it's time to get started. Psychiatrists usually spend time talking to their patients. Herlofsen has still not made any attempt to investigate whether "Skog" is really ill.

The next day, Herlofsen delivers the goods. In the doctor's statement, "Gøran Skog" has suddenly taken a clinical test called MADRS. It shows that he has a moderate depression. In addition, "Skog's" wife has been referred to the District Psychiatric Center.

None of this agrees with reality, or with what "Skog" has stated.

Herlofsen concludes that "Skog" will need psychiatric treatment, and recommends that he be placed in open prison in Oslo.

Skog »pulls out the pile of banknotes and counts 8500 kroner across the table.

- I want you to be happy, he says.

- He he. That's okay. Nice, Herlofsen grins.

- I might have been able to get a tax deduction for this, "Skog" asks in a badly hidden hint about a receipt.

- It's possible that - expense for income acquisition, or something ... Possible it, but it does not slam here, he laughs out loud, and stuffs the money in the uniform pocket with his left hand.

Pardoned rapist

In 2000, the art dealer convicted of rape applied for pardon. The background was medical statements about his mental health.

The art dealer received help with the application from his close friend and psychiatrist, Pål Herlofsen. But Herlofsen is an expert in disaster psychiatry, not pardons. He needed assistance. He sought out psychologist John Sandstrøm, who over the years had helped a number of clients to pardon.

- Herlofsen contacted me to get advice on how they should proceed to get a pardon, Sandstrøm says today.

The rapist had already applied once in 1998, but was rejected by the Ministry of Justice. This time they succeeded.

In the Council of State, the sentence of three and a half years' imprisonment was made conditional. The Ministry of Justice found that he was too ill to serve time. He was even too ill to be treated in an institution. The 56-year-old never has to go to jail.

The pardon is, as usual, classified.

The Ministry of Justice has three times rejected DN's requests for access to the pardon case.

- Feels like my name is being misused

Politician Stein Ikdahl flips through the papers. He is sitting in an armchair in his office at the Greenland police station in Oslo. The folder dealing with the rape case is thin. It consists of a four-page statement from Pål Herlofsen, and a subsequent assessment from Ikdahl.

- I concluded that he is incapacitated, but that it is temporary. That was in 1996, he says.

- We have not had him here since 1996. And I must say I am very surprised that he was pardoned at all.

Ikdahl completely distances himself from the fact that Herlofsen's clients have received some special treatment from the police doctor, and that his name comes up in this case.

- Now I feel that my name has been misused in a context I do not know.

Ikdahl is also very surprised to hear that Herlofsen and the art dealer were friends.

- I must say I am very surprised that Herlofsen has written a statement for a personal acquaintance.

Ikdahl puts the papers on the desk.

- Would that have anything to do with your assessment?

- Yes of course. Then I would be much more skeptical. I would completely disregard the statement from Herlofsen.