A HIGH- LEVEL LOW- PRIORITY CASE
By Ulla Danielsen, journalist, DK-Copenhagen
The case of former Danish autism researcher Poul Thorsen, whom the Danish police suspect of many instances of financial fraud, gets weirder and weirder as times go by.
On January 22, 2010, more than two years ago, the Danish Aarhus University issued a “To whom it may concern-statement” concerning its former high-profile autism researcher Poul Thorsen.
The core of this statement, which the Aarhus University wished to confirm, is that Dr. Poul Thorsen no longer had any connection to Aarhus University, and that Aarhus University would not collaborate with Thorsen in the future.
The reason for the Aarhus statement was a considerable shortfall in funding had been discovered at Aarhus University that was associated with an American CDC grant administered by Thorsen.
According to this statement from Aarhus University, the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI) had reported this matter to the police.
However, unbelievably, until this day of February 21, 2012, the Police of Eastern Jutland has not heard from Poul Thorsen concerning the amount of Public Money misappropriated from the Aarhus University’s CDC grant. Neither is Thorsen being actively pursued. And, at present the police don’t even know where the suspect is.
According to police assistant, Lars Ove Jensen, from the police of Eastern Jutland the reason for the lack of action is. “We lack the information that should be the foundation for a hearing”.
The information required by Danish police in order to properly investigate the case must come from the USA. However, as of today, no information has been delivered.
Moreover, according to Jensen, international police collaboration sometimes takes a lot of time.
As lengthy as the Poul Thorsen-case seems to be, it is not lacking in significance.
According to the Police of Eastern Jutland, no less than the Danish government is waiting for an extradition request from the American federal government.
Danish daily INFORMATION was one of the first papers to report in detail on the Danish autism fraud case.
According to INFORMATION in 2000 Poul Thorsen’s research unit NANEA at Aarhus University received a research grant of 7,8 million USD from American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The research grant was extended in 2007, when NANEA received an additional 8,2 million USD from CDC.
In another Danish case involving Poul Thorsen, the former high- profile autism researcher has been charged with gross tax evasion. This tax evasion case is scheduled to begin next month at the court in Aarhus.
