The battery company Northvolt, hailed for its environmentally friendly entrepreneurship, was in fact a cynical capitalist setup to cash in on the prevailing climate alarmist hysteria behind a green facade. This is claimed by observers now that the company lies in ruins, the employees who have not died are left without jobs, but the managers walk out through the gates with well-filled pockets.
Recently, Northvolt’s CEO Peter Carlsson announced his resignation. But before leaving what he knew was a leaking ship on the verge of sinking, he made sure to sell his shares for hundreds of millions to unsuspecting actors who still trusted the hyped company, which even leading red-green politicians vouched for.
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However, Carlsson is not alone in the company’s management to have emptied Northvolt of large sums of money and secured them for themselves before what now seems to be an outright bankruptcy is a fact. It is worse for the ordinary worker who is now left without a job – several of them guest workers who have spent their savings to move to Sweden and Skellefteå for what they thought would be a secure future job.
It is still unclear whether they can stay in Sweden now that they have become unemployed and the residence permit linked to the job ceases to be valid. The employees who have escaped such problems include several who have died under mysterious circumstances in workplace accidents.
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Several hundred employees have signed a petition demanding an apology from Northvolt’s management for wanting to continue paying out generous bonuses to what they describe as the company’s key personnel despite multi-billion losses and the threat of bankruptcy.
Leaving Northvolt Scandal with a Fortune
At the head of the exclusive circle is former CEO Peter Carlsson (top left), who sold his shares in Northvolt for 200 million SEK when he turned his back on the company and left. There is great outrage among the employees, who, under the pretext of making a lot of money in the alleged future company, were offered and took the opportunity to buy shares in Northvolt.
In contrast to Carlsson, the employees have been prohibited from selling their shares, despite the terms of the share program allowing it. Now they are left with worthless shares. Many subcontractors who have not been paid their invoices are also angry, while the company’s management has pocketed large sums of money from the company.
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One of those leaving the sinking ship far from empty-handed is co-founder Paolo Cerruti (top middle). He is a shareholder in Northvolt through his company Quantum Leap AB and also the CEO of Northvolt’s operations in the USA. During the years 2021-2023, he harvested over 100 million SEK in “financial fixed assets,” and this year he has granted himself a dividend of 71 million SEK.
Another person not going down with the ship is Emma Nehrenheim (top right), who called herself a “sustainability manager” and has been part of the top management since 2017. At that time, she had no large sums in the bank, but in 2022, the balance was 14 million SEK, earned not from work but in the form of capital income.
Even greater capital income from holding leading positions in Northvolt has been had by Emad Zand (bottom left), to be precise, 45 million SEK. In addition, there are another 79 million SEK in securities gains in Zand’s own holding company, which is among other things a shareholder in Northvolt.
The company’s CFO, Alexander Hartman (bottom middle), left his position at Northvolt this summer after failing to persuade investors to put more money into the company. He did not leave the crisis-ridden battery giant empty-handed, but with well over ten million SEK sold through his previously dormant company that was revived. According to the annual report, the money came from “selling shares in Northvolt AB”.
The communications manager Jesper Wigardt (bottom right) – until 2023 responsible for marketing the green battery giant among politicians and other opinion makers – made sure, before he left, to secure capital income of 13.5 million SEK.
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Marketing manager Christofer Haux, production manager Fredrik Hedlund, a former recruitment manager, the departed company lawyer (incidentally married to the CEO Peter Carlsson) are other people at the top of Northvolt who are said to have emptied the company of large capital income for several years.
In many cases, it is money that has been acquired immediately after persuading investors to put money into Northvolt in the belief that it would be used for the business, not end up in the pockets of the top management.
“Crony Capitalism” behind Green Facade
Peter Vennblad at Svenska Dagbladet is one of those who have delved into the Northvolt mess and writes critically about the “crony capitalism” he believes has been going on behind the fine green facade. According to Vennblad, extensive cover-ups have occurred of the many and serious problems that Northvolt’s products have been plagued with. Buying substandard manufacturing equipment from China is also said to have contributed to the problems.
None of those who have profited from being in Northvolt’s management in this way want to talk to the media today, or they claim that what they have been doing is “completely normal” among people in corporate management, which if true does not make the situation any better. The company has also been praised from the left in politics, where otherwise angry fists are raised against capitalists. Today, when green entrepreneurs turn out to be just as greedy as others, the silence from there is significant.
“Dressing up the Pig” for the Outside World
Vennblad quotes sources within the company in his investigative article who state that they have “for a long time tried to get the management to understand the extent of both the technical and economic problems, but that it has not wanted to listen”. CEO Peter Carlsson is said to have been more interested in scrolling on his phone than actively participating in the management and board meetings where he was present.
In general, those responsible at Northvolt, according to sources, have sold a lie to financiers and the public. Decision-making has, as one of the sources puts it, been about “dressing up the pig for an upcoming IPO”. The high-ranking managers who secretly sold their shares in Northvolt have, according to Vennblad’s informants, with the other hand pressured lower managers to keep their shares and encouraged them to “believe” in the company and that the IPO would be a boost.
It is not only the employees at Northvolt and the company’s deceived subcontractors who will have to foot the bill for the green circus. When the high company leaders sold their shares, they could get a good price because the company had been granted publicly guaranteed loans, persuaded municipal administrations to invest taxpayers’ money, and, not least, been praised by numerous top politicians at the national level who helped market Northvolt as “green, world-leading, and sustainable”.
Similar stories may be about to unfold in the wind power industry, where virtually all involved companies are making huge losses. Many fear that it will not be the top management of the companies that will have to foot the bill, but taxpayers and pension savers, whose money above their heads has been invested in the spins.
Read all articles on Samnytt about Northvolt HERE.