Richard Ringheim

Richard Ringheim is a famous Norwegian con artist. His exploits include sales of fabricated Norwegian and/or NATO state secrets to the Syrian embassy in Stockholm. Ringheim was featured in the documentary "Svindleren" (English title: "The Con Kid") which aired on Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's main television channel NRK1. The documentary was produced by Piraya Films AS, and directed by Trond Kvist in 2005.

In 2004 Richard Ringheim was sentenced to a small punishment by the Ryfylke court for his crimes. Many believe Ringheims cooperation with the Norwegian Intelligence Agency (PST) and the police helped reduce the sentence considerably. In example the con artist helped the police in 2003 by arranging trades with different Arabic embassies in both Oslo and Stockholm where he sold false intelligence information. The operation resulted in denial of entrance to several Syrian and Iranian high ranking diplomats and officials by a number of European countries.

Phone recordings of conversations between Richard Ringheim and the Head of the Norwegian Intelligence Agency (PST), Steinar Karlsen, was presented on a press conference regarding the documentary "Svindleren" some time after it was aired. Both refuses to comment the tapes.

Some journalists suggest that Richard Ringheim works on behalf of the Norwegan Government, but there are no evidence for this.

See also

* Kevin Mitnick

References

* [http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/113677# Fakta på lørdag] Free broadcast of the documentary Svindleren (The Con Kid) from NRK home page. Last accessed on 16 July 2007.
* [http://www.ba.no/puls/article1754108.ece Ringheim worked for PST?] Article in Bergensavisa (Bergen Newspaper)