Several regular Danish national football team players claim that a couple of former players took advantage of their trusting nature to secure considerable investment sums from them that inevitably failed. ...‘Naturally it's my own responsibility in the end for where I put my money. But I can still be irritated when people try to rip me off,' said Kahlenberg.
Several regular Danish national football team players claim that a couple of former players took advantage of their trusting nature to secure considerable investment sums from them that inevitably failed. ...‘Naturally it's my own responsibility in the end for where I put my money. But I can still be irritated when people try to rip me off,' said Kahlenberg.
Several regular Danish national football team players claim that a couple of former players took advantage of their trusting nature to secure considerable investment sums from them that inevitably failed.
According to B.T. newspaper, Thomas Kahlenberg, Leon Andreasen, Michael Silberbauer and around 40 other players were convinced to invest in projects operated by Wind Green Energy, when former Super League players Martin Nielsen and Christian Magleby represented the company to them.
The two former players were reportedly working for sales firm Børge Bang and gave sales presentations for wind turbines to most …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Several regular Danish national football team players claim that a couple of former players took advantage of their trusting nature to secure considerable investment sums from them that inevitably failed.
According to B.T. newspaper, Thomas Kahlenberg, Leon Andreasen, Michael Silberbauer and around 40 other players were convinced to invest in projects operated by Wind Green Energy, when former Super League players Martin Nielsen and Christian Magleby represented the company to them.
The two former players were reportedly working for sales firm Børge Bang and gave sales presentations for wind turbines to most of the clubs in the league. The sustainable projects were presented to the players as sure bet investments when in reality they were anything but, according to wind industry expert Christian Sauer, who reviewed the contracts for B.T.
Kahlenberg and the others admit that they should have been more careful about their investments. But he told TV2 Sport that he was inclined to take what Nielsen and Magleby told them at face value.
‘Naturally it's my own responsibility in the end for where I put my money. But I can still be irritated when people try to rip me off,' said Kahlenberg. ‘The idea was that the investment was to pay off as a sort of football retirement pension, but it certainly hasn't turned out that way.
The players originally paid out a flat 500,000 kroner investment to take part in the projects presented by Magleby and Nielsen. They formed 10-man limited companies, where, it is said, each group owned a wind turbine.
The players were told that as long as Wind Green Energy was reporting a deficit, then the players could write off the losses.
But the players said that losing their initial investment isn't what really bothered them. Instead, it's been that they have had to keep making payments on top of that sum - up to 20,000 kroner monthly.
Many of the players decided to go to fellow professional footballer Michael Gravgaard, who is just finishing his Master's degree in accounting, for advice on the matter. Gravgaard spoke out against Green Wind's tactics and subsequently received an email from the company's attorney's threatening a libel suit.
‘When I got the email I'd already had two or three meetings with Green Wind's management,' said Gravgaard. ‘I view the email as a threat for me to keep my mouth shut about the matter.'
Green Wind Energy's CEO, John Hansen, told B.T. newspaper that he was genuinely sorry about the losses the players had suffered due to the investments.
‘It isn't just footballers who've had a bad go of it,' he said. ‘But the industry's had a bad year and we've been hammered by a financial crisis.'