“Finally, we will force Enovos to answer to a judge,” said EAM CEO Viktor Jakobsen in an email. His promising project remains suspended from court decisions, eight years after he bought the solar installations. His company, into which investors had injected €55m, was worth less than €6m in 2020. “For the rest, you only have to consult our last annual report,” he said.

On Thursday and Friday, the Luxembourg company's lawyer, Espen Ostling, will try to prevent Enovos from having to pay €160m in compensation and €2m in fines in a new proceeding after those initiated in Luxembourg and Italy. Both hearings are preliminary hearings.

According to the 2020 annual report, the Norwegian company blames Enovos for having sold it 31 photovoltaic plants in 2014 for €115m with the knowledge that the directors of the company, Igor Akhmerov and Marco Giorgi--whose holding company, Aveleos, is also based in Luxembourg--,were the subject of an investigation by the Italian justice system.

The judiciary accused them of having bought solar panels in China and of having tampered with the labels and documents in order to be able to receive nearly €60ms in subsidies from the Italian state for the production of green energy. Enovos has denied any knowledge of this. 

The preliminary hearings in Oslo come after lengthy legal procedures in Italy. The hearings will determine if the case goes to trial.

According to EAM’s latest annual report, the consequences of the decision of the state-owned operator Gestore dei Servizi Energetici amount to more than €300m.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.