Jóhannes Stefánsson (born 1973) is a former Director of Operations in Namibia for Icelandic fishing company Samherji and a whistleblower known as the source of the

Fishrot Files On 12 November 2019, WikiLeaks began publishing what it called the Fishrot Files (), a collection of thousands of documents and email communication by employees of one of Iceland's largest fish industry companies, Samherji, that indicated that the ...

(), which included thousands of the company's documents, emails and other files. The files and Jóhannes' testimony allegedly show that the company paid hundreds of millions to senior officials in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

to get the country's fishing quota and have led to high profile resignations and arrests in at least 27 countries.

Career

Jóhannes worked as a fisherman for ten years before taking more managerial positions at a fish factory. He worked his way to foreman, and then started traveling the world looking for opportunities for Samherji in 2007. In 2011 he came to Namibia where foreign companies weren't allowed to bid on fishing quotes, but local bidders could resell their rights. Samherji sent him to

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

in Namibia to sign deals and manage the business. Jóhannes says he helped Samherji inflate fees, evade taxes, and engage in transfer pricing violations. From 2013 to July 2016, Jóhannes was the managing director for Arcticnam Fishing, co-owned by Samherji, and the Director of Operations in Namibia for Samherji. Jóhannes says that in 2016, his feelings of guilt grew and he decided to quit Samherji while on a trip to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. With the help of an IT specialist, he downloaded 38,000 emails from his work account, along with memos, photos and videos from a shared

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropbox w ...

account onto five hard drives over two days. Jóhannes's employment with Samherji formally ended in December 2016.

Whistleblowing

By July 2016, Jóhannes had decided to go public. Jóhannes says he started receiving threats, that false rumors were spread about him and that his food was poisoned. Jóhannes stayed in South Africa, protected by bodyguards until 10 January 2017. In August 2018, Jóhannes started working with the investigation team in Namibia and special units of the Namibian government. The Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) took the threats to his safety seriously enough to help him. After returning to Iceland, he contacted

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

and began working on the Fishrot Files with

Kristinn Hrafnsson Kristinn Hrafnsson (born 25 June 1962) is an Icelandic investigative journalist who has been the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks since 2018. He was the spokesperson for WikiLeaks between 2010 and 2017. Career Kristinn has worked at various newspa ...

. The two decided to partner with RUV,

Stundin ''Stundin'' was an Icelandic bi-weekly newspaper known for investigative journalism. It took the form of both an online newspaper and a news magazine. It was founded in 2015 by former staff of DV after a hostile takeover of the paper. It was fun ...

and Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit. On 12 November 2019, WikiLeaks began publishing the Fishrot Files. On the same day, Jóhannes said on RÚV's investigative program that Samherji's CEO authorized the bribes. Jóhannes admits he committed crimes, but believes he acted on behalf of the company, saying "I violated the law on behalf of Samherji while I was there. I was the man to get the quotas and the connections, on my superiors’ orders."

After Fishrot

On 1 March 2021, a crowd-funding campaign was announced to raise funds for Jóhannes, who said he believes he was poisoned. The campaign was organised by Whistleblowing International, ANA LOGO, Whistleblower Network News and the

National Whistleblower Center The National Whistleblower Center (NWC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax exempt, educational and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1988 by the lawyers Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP. As of June 2021, Siri Nelson is the ...

. In October 2021, he won the WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stefánsson, Jóhannes 1973 births 2019 in international relations 2019 in Iceland 2019 in Namibia 2019 in Norway 2019 scandals Corruption in Namibia Corruption in Norway People associated with WikiLeaks Living people News leaks

Jóhannes Stefánsson Jóhannes Stefánsson (born 1973) is a former Director of Operations in Namibia for Icelandic fishing company Samherji and a whistleblower known as the source of the Fishrot Files (), which included thousands of the company's documents, emails and ...