NATO fraud probe: Norway arrests five suspects

Norwegian police arrested five people in western Norway on Wednesday in an investigation into suspected aggravated fraud against a NATO agency.

Police said the five, arrested in the Bergen region, are suspected of over-invoicing the NATO Support and Procurement Agency for services provided to NATO ships in Norwegian ports between 2021 and 2025.

The alleged overcharges amount to more than one million euros, police said.

Marianne Bender, a senior public prosecutor at Norway's national economic crime unit, said rising defence budgets worldwide increased the risk of economic crime and that authorities were monitoring the area closely.

Romanian and German police also searched several companies in Romania and Germany suspected of links to the same case, according to Norwegian police.