Jóhannes Stefánsson
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Jóhannes Stefánsson (born 1973)[1] is a former Director of Operations in Namibia for Icelandic fishing company Samherji[2] and a whistleblower known as the source of the Fishrot Files (Icelandic: Samherjaskjölin), which included thousands of the company's documents, emails and other files.[3][4][5] The files and Jóhannes' testimony allegedly show that the company paid hundreds of millions to senior officials in Namibia to get the country's fishing quota[6][7] and have led to high profile resignations[8][9][10] and arrests[11][12] in at least 27 countries.[13]
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.[1][13] In 2011 he came to Namibia[14] where foreign companies weren't allowed to bid on fishing quotes, but local bidders could resell their rights. Samherji sent him to Walvis Bay in Namibia to sign deals and manage the business. Jóhannes says he helped Samherji inflate fees, evade taxes, and engage in transfer pricing violations.[1][13]
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.[2][13][14] Jóhannes says that in 2016, his feelings of guilt grew and he decided to quit Samherji while on a trip to Cape Town. 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 account onto five hard drives over two days.[13][14]
Jóhannes's employment with Samherji formally ended in December 2016.[7]
