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The Epstein files have put a particular spotlight on the Nordic countries, which took many by surprise. In the over three million newly published documents, there are a number of highly scandalous connections that have been made between financier Jeffrey Epstein and people in the upper echelons of Swedish and Norwegian society. The sometimes very close bonds between these countries’ elites and the infamous sex convict may do irreversible damage to the international standing of Sweden and Norway.
The Norwegian involvement
Of the two, it is Norway that is undoubtedly the worst implicated. From its political sector, it is no inexperienced and naive lightweights that have been exposed in the Epstein document releases – former prime minister and former Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, the veteran diplomat couple Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul, and former foreign minister and subsequent president of the World Economic Forum Børge Brende are some of the top profiles who are now facing serious scrutiny and erosion of their public standing.
Jagland, Rød-Larsen, and Juul have political backgrounds in the Norwegian Social Democratic party, while Brende is of the Right party. That the Epstein links are not limited to only the Social Democrats does help spread the inflicted damage across the political spectrum to some degree, but considering the high rank of the involved Social Democrats, the party of whom for that matter has long dominated the Norwegian political landscape, the whole affair reflects particularly negative on the Norwegian centre-left.
And last but not least, the Norwegian institution that has taken the greatest damage out of all of this is of course the monarchy. That the crown princess Mette-Marit has been revealed to have had a very close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, even after she ascended into the royal house through her marriage to crown prince Haakon, and even after Epstein was first convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from under-age girls, has thrown the future of the Norwegian monarchy into uncertainty. With what dignity can the throne be headed in part by a woman with such a tainted record? There is little an apology and acknowledgements of “poor judgement”, which the crown princess did issue amidst the intense media attention, can do to repair her reputation.
The crisis for the Norwegian monarchy is only made worse by a simultaneous scandal regarding Mette-Marit’s son Marius Borg Høiby, the informal prince from a previous marriage who is on trial on a number of sex, violence and narcotic charges.
The disgrace of the Norwegian monarchy needs to be viewed in the wider context of the wider institutional crisis in the country, however. The Norwegian Social Democrats, the diplomatic corps, and several other institutions have been implicated by the errors of its members, whose passivity or even sympathy towards one of the most notorious organised sex criminals in modern history reveal a shocking lack of character.
The Swedish involvement
The same situation is largely true in Sweden. While less institutionally tied, many of the high-profile Swedes tied to Epstein have been recurring figures in various elite environments.
The main person to figure in the Epstein documents is Barbro Ehnbom, a socialite with a background in finance and who has involved herself in philanthropy. She has been alleged to have used her ties to Swedish universities, which she has raised funds for, to scout women suitable for Jeffrey Epstein’s needs. The system Ehnbom used to recruit women, “Barbro’s Best and Brightest”, was a feminist career network entirely financed by Epstein, according to Swedish media reports.
The contacts between Ehnbom and Epstein were extensive, and the released emails show that she brought various young women from Swedish elite academies to the sex criminal’s attention. What proceeded from Ehnbom’s recommendations is not known, but at the very least numerous young Swedish women can be assumed to have participated in Epstein’s events. Whether any of the contexts Ehnbom lured the women into was illegal is unproven.
The Swedish princess Sofia is one such Swedish woman linked to Epstein through Ehnbom’s recruitments. Similar to the Norwegian crown princess Mette-Marit, the Swedish princess Sofia married from commonership into royalty to Prince Carl Philip in 2015. The released emails between Epstein and Ehnbom show that Sofia was introduced to the financier by Barbro Ehnbom early on in her career, in 2005. As this was before her becoming Swedish royalty, and due to Sofia’s apparent decline of an invitation to Epstein’s infamous resort island, this link has not done much damage in and of itself to the Swedish monarchy.
But that Ehnbom in one now published email described her network to Epstein as containing over 200 “fantastic young women, including a minister, an ambassador, a professor, […] a princess, Sofia!” shows that with the help of collaborators in Sweden, Epstein had far-reaching contacts into the core of the Swedish elite, which naturally spurs speculation and suspicion.
Ehnbom was not Epstein’s only recruiter in Sweden. Another man implicated by the Epstein files is the modelling agent Daniel Siad who, under the apparent pretense of offering careers, recruited women for Epstein. He was active internationally, but in one exchange with Epstein claimed that he had a speciality for persuading Swedish girls. Siad, although managing to remain anonymised in the media for the first few weeks of the Epstein files craze, has since claimed ignorance of Epstein’s crimes, although there are accounts of sexual violence occurring even in his own modelling agency, detailed by outspoken survivors.
Epstein had personal ties to Sweden through his one-time girlfriend Eva Dubin, a model who won the Miss Sweden award in 1980. This likely enabled many of his relationships with persons in Sweden who played large parts in his networks, particularly for procuring women. In recent weeks, it has been of much public and media interest that Epstein appears briefly in footage of the crowd of the 1985 Melodifestivalen, the national musical contest which promotes Sweden’s Eurovision Song Contest entry. It was reportedly his relationship to Eva Dubin that brought him to the event, allowing him to mingle with parts of the Swedish cultural elite.
Some of the institutional components of Epstein’s network in Sweden are among others a high-level female diplomat, whose frequent usage of the sex convict’s New York apartment was revealed in the files.
Implications for Scandinavia
That Sweden and in particular Norway feature so prominently in Jeffrey Epstein’s web of manipulation, abuse, and horror puts a dent in the judgment of the countries’ elites. In the United States, many of the theories about Epstein’s motives for his social and political network concern the gathering of intelligence, and allegations that he has been working for foreign powers. Epstein indeed had ties to foreign intelligence, which becomes apparent both through his personal relationships with persons such as Ghislaine Maxwell (whose father was an Israeli agent and who has been the subject of much Epstein correspondence), and through his various attempts at contacting politicians in Russia, which have been widely reported about. Did Epstein nudge political decision-making, perhaps in geopolitical questions? Did he have a hand in certain types of legislation being passed? The width of his network arouses such speculations.
Where do Sweden and Norway fit into these grand political schemes? The utility of Epstein’s contacts with high-ranking diplomats, politicians, and royalty should be very concerning from a national security perspective, but there is no clear trace of any political manipulation resulting from these contacts. But it may be inferred, in the case of Sweden, that Epstein’s primary interest in the country was its women, and not its political potential.
Some reflection in Swedish and Norwegian media has revolved around the “loss of innocence” that the Epstein links mean, which may be more damaging than any direct political fallout.
Both Sweden and Norway, and in particular their Social Democratic parties as well as their most renowned internationally-oriented institutions, have for a long time marketed themselves as restrained, incorruptable, and shying away from excesses on the global stage. They have acted as mediators and peace makers and been recognised for their commitment to ending wars and contributing to social justice. The Nobel Peace Prize, culturally Swedish-Norwegian but institutionally Norwegian, embodies many of these values, and is awarded every year in Oslo by the country’s elite to persons fighting for democratic rights, for peace, and co-existence.
How does this rhyme with the enthusiasm for fraternising with an infamous sex convict, pedophile, and human trafficker? The veterans of the ‘benevolent Scandinavia’ have shown that they are just as corrupt as any seedy American congressman.