Espen Høiby, the brother of Norway's Queen Mette-Marit, is being sued by 60 former students of Pilot Flight Academy, the flight school he co-owned, according to reports. The legal action follows the school's bankruptcy, which left students unable to recover prepaid tuition fees.
Bankruptcy and Student Losses
Pilot Flight Academy, reported by Hola! as among the most expensive flying schools in Norway, filed for bankruptcy shortly after New Year's due to money troubles, according to NRK. The collapse resulted in 40 employees losing their jobs and around 160 students losing their places in the flying programme.
Many of these 160 students had prepaid tuition of around $26,000 and have been unable to get this money back. NRK reports that Norway's Parliament has debated ways to ease the financial strain on affected students, including delaying the repayment of their student loans.
Damages Claim and Response
Parat, the Norwegian union providing legal assistance to the students, is supporting 60 students who have filed a damages claim against Høiby and Per Mikael Eriksson, who served as the school's CEO and board chair. The students claim that management left filing for bankruptcy too late.
It is also claimed that the students said the Queen's brother was making decisions behind the scenes regarding the flying school. This idea has been rejected by Høiby's attorney Kristoffer Aasebø, who told NRK there's no basis for suing his client.
The attorney said that Høiby never held a seat on Pilot Flight Academy's board and never represented the school to its students. This is despite the fact that he does own the crew-staffing company, AAP Aviation, which was one of the academy's largest shareholders in 2022.
Fraud Suspicions and Police Referral
The students were reportedly inspired to take legal action when it became clear there were grounds to suspect fraud. This was raised as a possibility in a report by bankruptcy trustee Kåre Jølberg, who referred the matter to the police, as NRK reported.
The report lists possible violations, including breaches of the legal duty to file for bankruptcy, accounting offences, and fraud. Jølberg has reportedly advised students who lost money to consider pursuing claims against individual board members. A police investigation is not believed to be under way yet.
Norway's Queen has not spoken about the legal action being brought against her brother. It is believed to be another stress to add to her list this year, following her son's jail sentence and her own ill-health. She also had to apologise earlier this year after the Epstein Files showed she was once friends with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. She expressed deep regret about the friendship and claimed she did not know what he was like.
She has only been Queen for a few months, having taken to the throne alongside her husband, King Haakon, after the death of King Harald in August.
