By Johan Ahlander and Terje Solsvik
STOCKHOLM, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Norway has been rocked by the release of millions of documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein and indicating that leading politicians and top diplomats had extensive contact with the U.S. sex offender who died by suicide in 2019.
Norway’s parliament has appointed a rare external inquiry into the foreign ministry’s link to Epstein and there are police investigations of a diplomat couple and a former prime minister, while the World Economic Forum has started an independent investigation of its Norwegian CEO.
Following are some of the revelations found in the documents released in late January by the U.S. Department of Justice:
DIPLOMAT COUPLE TERJE ROED-LARSEN AND MONA JUUL
Mona Juul, who resigned as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq in February, is suspected of gross corruption and her husband, former government minister Terje Roed-Larsen, is suspected of complicity in gross corruption.
Roed-Larsen and Juul have said through their lawyers they believe there is no basis for the cases against them.
He has apologised several times for the relationship and in 2020 stepped down as CEO of the New York-based International Peace Institute, a think tank.
However, the latest release of files by the U.S. Justice Department indicated a deeper and more far-reaching friendship and collaboration between Roed-Larsen and Epstein.
Among other references to Juul and Roed-Larsen, the files showed that the couple made plans to visit Epstein’s private island with their two children in 2011, though it was unclear if the visit took place.
Roed-Larsen thanked Epstein for “everything you have done” in a text message in 2017 and called him his “best friend” and a “thoroughly good human being.”
Epstein also helped the couple negotiate an Oslo apartment purchase in 2018 and in an email exchange told the seller “it will become unpleasant” if he backed out of the deal over a price he considered too low.
In a will signed two days before his death, Epstein stated that Roed-Larsen and Juul’s two children would stand to inherit $5 million each.
FORMER PRIME MINISTER THORBJOERN JAGLAND
Jagland, who served as prime minister in 1996-97, is under investigation for alleged aggravated corruption for dealings with Epstein during the time he was head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
A lawyer for Jagland said he welcomed police opening an investigation and that he felt confident that it would clear his client of any criminal wrongdoing.
The files show among other things that Jagland and Epstein’s assistants made detailed plans in 2014 for Jagland, his wife, two children and his son’s girlfriend to visit Epstein at Palm Beach, Florida and the Caribbean island that he owned.
Jagland has denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island.
In an email in 2014, he sought Epstein’s help in financing an apartment in Oslo.
Emails from 2018 showed Epstein asking Jagland to arrange for him to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and saying he had insights to offer President Vladimir Putin. Jagland promised to bring it up with Lavrov’s assistant.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM CEO BOERGE BRENDE
The World Economic Forum, which hosts the annual Davos summit, has launched an independent investigation into its CEO Boerge Brende to clarify his relationship with Epstein after the files showed contact between the pair.
The WEF said Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister who has been CEO since 2017, fully supported the review, which he had requested himself.
Text messages from 2018-19 between Brende and Epstein appear to show a more friendly tone than Brende previously has acknowledged. Brende said in 2025 he “had nothing to do” with Epstein, but the files showed they met for dinner at least three times and tried to arrange several other meetings.
Brende called Epstein a “brilliant host” and said “missing you Sir” in text messages after a dinner with Epstein, Steve Bannon and Roed-Larsen. Their last communication was a week before Epstein was arrested in 2019.
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Terje Solsvik, Nora Buli and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Comments