Ben Hamilton
December 18th, 2018

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Only the best for the chairman’s table (photo: Renzo Grosso)

Allan Luplau, the chair of the Akademikernes A-Kasse, along with two vice-chairs, have resigned following repeated allegations regarding profligate spending at the unemployment insurance provider.

While the media have had a field day about the luxurious trips abroad, they’ve saved the most derision for the amounts of expensive wine consumed in the boardroom presiding over the largest a-kasse (with 233,000 members) in the country.

In September, departing director Michael Valentin confessed to Ekstra Bladet that he spent 250,000 kroner a year on wine to satisfy a demand to celebrate good news with the best that money can buy.

Danmarks Scandalistik 
A scandal is also engulfing Danmarks Statistik where its employees regularly received gifts from a fellow data and analysis company over a seven-year period, thus contravening rules on giving presents to public employees, reports Politiken.

Between 2009 and 2015, Geomatic bequeathed more than 30 gifts, including concert tickets and fancy dinners. Geomatic is a long-term customer of the state statistics provider, from which it has been buying information about Denmark’s citizens since 2003.

Danmarks Statistik has expressed concerns at the findings, with one of its directors, Carsten Zangenberg, calling it “one of the most critical issues” seen during his two decades at the organisation.

Danish woman found dead in Atlas mountain range – foul play suspected
A Danish woman has been found dead in Morocco, together with a female Norwegian, and it is looking like they were most probably murdered. The pair were discovered near Toubkal, the country’s highest mountain, which is located in the Atlas range south of Marrakech, around 10 km away from the settlement of Imlil in the El Haouz province. Media reports claim their necks were cut and that they had been violently assaulted.

Eight out of ten Greenlanders affected by climate change – study
Some 79 percent of Greenlanders say their lives have been affected by climate change, according to a study of 1,400 islanders carried out by Kraks Fond Urban Research in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen and the University of Greenland. In contrast, around 10 percent believe climate change is benefiting Greenland and a further 9 percent predict it will do so in the future.

Twenty years for gang member who mistook police officers for rivals
A member of the Loyal To Familia street gang has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to kill two people last September in the Mjølnerparken neighbourhood in Copenhagen. At the time, the 20-year-old defendant believed his victims were members of the Brothas, against which LTF fought the 2017 Copenhagen Gang War. But it later emerged they had no gang affiliations and were in fact plain-clothed police officers.

Young teens start fire on railway carriage at Fredericia Station
Two 15-year-old girls and a 16-year-old boy have been charged with starting a fire on a train at Fredericia Station on Monday afternoon, which resulted in several carriages becoming engulfed with flames. Two people were treated for smoke inhalation, and initial fears that the smoke contained asbestos led to an evacuation of the area.  A fourth accomplice, a 13-year-old boy, is too young to be charged. It is believed the youngsters filmed another incident on Snapchat, which involved a smaller fire started on a train seat, and that this made it easy for the police to track them down quickly.