Keshvari admits to fake travel expenses

Mazyar Keshvari Sandberg travel expensesMazyar Keshvari (Progress Party). Photo. Progress Party

Keshvari admits to and apologises for fake travel expenses

Mazyar Keshvari (Progress Party) has, according to Aftenposten, delivered a number of undocumented travel bills. He admits receiving money that he was not entitled to. This comes shortly after the demise of former Minister of Fisheries, Per Sandberg.

 

According to the Norwegian major newspaper Aftenposten, Keshvari has submitted undocumented travel bills for a total of NOK 290,000. The newspaper can, for example, provide documentation that he has been in his hometown of Oslo while claiming NOK 36,000 in travel expenses.

Refuted by FrP sources

He has also claimed a total of NOK 116,000 for expenses where local Progress Party (Frp) leaders, or other sources, refutes that he has been present, according to Aftenposten. Among other items, Keshvari has delivered a travel expense bill of NOK 9,292 for diet, accommodation and driving cost for a trip to Grimstad, Lillesand, Mandal, Kristiansand and Vanse in East and West Agder in late August last year. He has not provided receipts that document stay, toll fees or other pertinent expenses.

One of the days claimed by Keshvari to having been spent travelling in southern Norway, he has posted photos on Facebook from a concurring member meeting in the local Frogner party organisation in Oslo.

Unreserved apology

– On a number of occasions, he has submitted incorrect expenses to the Parliament’s administration and has received sums of money he was not entitled to. He will not make any attempt to defend or explain this and offers an unreserved apology. He realises what he has done is unacceptable and is deeply affected by this. He sincerely apologises to Party members, colleagues in the Parliament, voters and taxpayers for the mistakes he has committed and the abuse of the trust he has been given, writes his lawyer, Arve Lønnum, in an email to the newspaper.

Aftenposten’s News Manager, Henning Carr Ekroll, is one of those who works on the case.

«Earlier this autumn, I gained access to the MP’s travel expenses. Here is the first case», He writes on Twitter.

Mazyar Keshvari has been on sick leave since October 9th.

More will follow as the case develops.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today