The National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime is Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

's central unit for fighting economic

White-collar crime

Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...

 and environmental crimes

Environmental crime

Environmental crime can be broadly defined as illegal acts, which directly harmthe environment. International bodies such as the G8, Interpol, EU, UN Environment Programme and the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute have recognised the following environmental crimes:* Illegal...

. The unit, created in 1989, has its main office in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

.

Økokrim is both a police unit

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 and a prosecution authority. The current director is Trond Eirik Schea. The unit is organized in multidisciplinary teams headed by public prosecutors. Each team has a specific field of expertise, such as corruption

Political corruption

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

, computer crime

Computer crime

Computer crime, or cybercrime, refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target. Netcrime refers to criminal exploitation of the Internet. Such crimes may threaten a nation’s security and financial health...

 or fraud

Fraud

In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...

.

Cases

The organization has played an important role in some major legal cases. For example, in 2002 and 2003 during the DeCSS

DeCSS

DeCSS is a computer program capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, there was no way for computers running a Linux-based operating system to play video DVDs....

 legal proceedings it prosecuted Jon Lech Johansen

Jon Lech Johansen

Jon Lech Johansen , also known as DVD Jon, is a Norwegian programmer famous for his work on reverse engineering data formats....

, who was assisted in his defense by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...

, and again in 2003 Økokrim arrested Mullah Krekar

Mullah Krekar

Mullah Krekar , is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist terrorist who came to Norway as a refugee from northern Iraq in 1991. His wife and four children have Norwegian citizenship, but not Krekar himself. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Norwegian and English...

, alleged leader of the Kurdish Islamist group, Ansar al-Islam

Ansar al-Islam

Ansar al-Islam is a Sunni Islamist group of Iraqis, promoting a radical interpretation of Islam, close to the official Saudi ideology of Wahhabism with strict application of Sharia. The group was formed in the northern provinces of Iraq near the Iranian border, and previously had established...

. In 2006 indictments were filed against four members of The 5 Percent Community

T5PC

T5PC was a controversial Norwegian Multi-level marketing company that went bankrupt in November 2004.As per November 2004, it had among 50,000 members , and it is claimed that its members lost as much as 1 billion NOK T5PC (or The 5 Percent Community) was a controversial Norwegian Multi-level...

 for breach of trust with fraudulent intent.

See also

• National Police Directorate
  Politidirektoratet
  Politidirektoratet, or the National Police Directorate, is a Norwegian directorate unit under the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Police, which manages and coordinates the police "in order to ensure a predictable, efficient and flexible service for the benefit of the public"...
  
  
• Police Security Agency

External links

• English website of the ØKOKRIM unit
• http://www.arstechnica.com/news/posts/1070300350.html
• EFF Topics: Free Jon Johansen! - Norway v. Johansen Case