Espen Høiby sued by former flight students

Espen Høiby, brother of Norway's Queen Mette-Marit, is facing a lawsuit from 60 former students of the insolvent Pilot Flight Academy. The students are seeking damages following the flight school's bankruptcy at Torp Airport in Sandefjord.

Many students had prepaid tuition fees of approximately 250,000 Norwegian kroner (around 24,000 euros) before the academy declared insolvency. The union Parat is supporting the legal action, alleging that Høiby was the individual actually making the decisions at the academy. The lawsuit also names long-time CEO Per Mikael Eriksson.

Høiby's lawyer, Kristoffer Aasebø, has rejected the allegations, stating there is no basis for the lawsuit. The defense argues that Høiby held no board mandate and did not represent the company to students, acting instead on information provided by management.

The insolvency administrator previously suggested that the bankruptcy filing should have occurred much earlier and referred the case to the Sør-Øst police district due to suspicions of fraud.