The deadline for filing the 2025 annual accounts expired on 31 July. The aid company Abyrint has not met the deadline. As a result, late-filing fees have begun to accrue. This will affect its owner Ivar Strand and his wife, government minister Sigrun Aasland (Labour).
The aid company Abyrint has been a cash cow of rare proportions, based on Norwegian aid money to Somalia. Since its establishment in the autumn of 2013, the company had, by the end of 2024, generated NOK 289 million in revenue. Of this, NOK 72 million went on salaries, while NOK 59 million accrued to the two owners in the form of dividends.
One of them is Ivar Strand, husband of the Minister of Research and Higher Education, Sigrun Aasland (Labour).
Document wrote about her extraordinary rise up the social ladder, financed with aid money.
Extraordinary rise up the social ladder, funded by foreign aid
As well as her previous contempt for and envy of Sylvi Listhaug, when the latter was a government minister, while Aasland was a member of the Socialist Left Party and head of policy at the think tank Agenda. That is, before her own rise up the social ladder.
Accounts missing – will not respond
The success up to 2024 naturally arouses curiosity about how things went in 2025. Abyrint’s operations take place in Somalia. Norway provided NOK 458 million in direct and indirect aid to Somalia in 2025, of which NOK 65 million was channelled through the World Bank, which is Abyrint’s client.
How much of this accrued to Abyrint is currently unknown, as Abyrint’s annual accounts are not available, even though the deadline for filing accounts is 31 July.
We therefore sent the following email to info@abyrint.com, which is the only means of contact provided on the company’s website:
As previously experienced, Abyrint does not respond to enquiries from Document.no, but the email has been read by Ivar Strand.
Breach of the Accounting Act
The consequences for limited companies that fail to file their accounts are unequivocal.
From 1 August 2026, an automatic late-filing fee begins to accrue pursuant to Section 8-3 of the Accounting Act. As of 13 August, the company is in the second week of the fee period.
But following the rise up the social ladder fuelled by the highly profitable Abyrint, which had NOK 12 million left in the bank at the end of 2024, the fees amount to pocket change for the Strand/Aasland couple.
They start at NOK 1,345 per week for eight weeks. They then increase to NOK 2,690 per week for the next ten weeks, before increasing to NOK 4,035 for the following weeks.
The Brønnøysund Register Centre states that the company is initially liable for the fee, but if it is not paid, board members and, in certain cases, the general manager may become jointly and severally personally liable.
Compulsory dissolution
If the accounts have not been filed by 31 January 2027, the Brønnøysund Register Centre will issue a notice and give the company one month to file them.
If the annual accounts are still not filed, a notice of compulsory dissolution will be published, and the company will be given a further four weeks.
The case may then be referred to the District Court for compulsory dissolution.
Poor procedures?
What is interesting in Abyrint’s particular case is that the company filed its previous annual accounts (2024) on 1 July 2025, which was also fairly late in relation to the ordinary deadline.
Document receives no answer as to the reason for this.