Therefore, the municipal facility manager was convicted of abuse of authority and fraud.

On Tuesday, a verdict was reached in the case against Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq's former facility manager Gerth Platou Jakobsen.

The court convicted him of abuse of authority, fraud and data fraud spread over four counts in total. This resulted in a suspended sentence of six months in prison.

Now Sermitsiaq itself has obtained the verdict and can therefore tell more about the reasons for the decision.

Gerth Platou Jakobsen was convicted of crimes that benefited his family. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that only he was indicted and convicted in this case. There have been no indications that members of his family have contributed to illegal activities.

Gerth Platou Jakobsen's name has been spelled in several different ways over the years in media coverage. Here we use the spelling that appears in the court transcript.

Fraudulent municipality and private company

The most important charge against Gerth Platou Jakobsen was that in 2021-2022, while he was facility manager, he illegally ensured that a certain company won a municipal tender.

The tender was about cleaning in the municipality, and the company in question was owned by his sister and brother-in-law.

The court placed great importance on the testimony of another former employee of the municipality, who also participated in the work on the tender in question.

The witness confirmed in the eyes of the court that the other cleaning company was the right winner, but that Gerth Platou Jakobsen nevertheless managed to distribute the tasks between the two companies.

The facility manager thus abused his position, the district court concluded, causing the municipality a financial loss estimated at least 390,000 kroner.

Booked travel on false grounds

There were several charges against Gerth Platou Jakobsen. One of them was that in 2021 he abused his position with the municipality to arrange a trip from Denmark to Nuuk for another sister. This took place in a corona time with severely limited opportunities to travel around the world.

Gert Platou Jakobsen participated in the corona secretariat and presented the sister as an employee of Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq who needed to travel home.

The prosecutor's interpretation of the process was confirmed by witnesses, including another person with a central position in the corona preparedness at the time.

In reality, the sister had nothing to do with the municipality. Her reason for traveling was purely personal, namely a death in the family. That was not a sufficient reason to be allowed to travel at that time, the witness said.

In addition, Gerth Platou Jakobsen was convicted of having the municipality pay for a holiday trip to Thailand for his partner and two children for 23,195 kroner and other private spending on a municipal credit card for 10,800 kroner.

Avoids a trip to prison

As mentioned, the court reached the conclusion that the measure should be six months in prison as a suspended sentence.

Gerth Platou Jakobsen thus avoids prison as long as he does not do anything illegal within the one-year probation period.

Among other things, the court emphasized that several years have passed since the crimes. It also believes that the chosen measure is appropriate in relation to a previous district court judgment that dealt with municipal fraud and abuse of authority for 730,000 kroner.

This was last year's much-publicized case involving former politician Lars-Emil Johansen and former municipal director Lars Møller-Sørensen. After the verdict in the district court, they were both acquitted in the Greenland High Court.

Møller-Sørensen also participated in the current case with Jakobsen, as the former municipal director was called as a witness via video from Denmark. However, it did not seem that this testimony made any difference to the outcome.

It is still not known whether Gerth Platou Jakobsen will also attempt an appeal to the High Court.