Cabinet minister romantically linked to young fish exporter.
The Norwegian fisheries minister Per Sandberg (58) declined to answer on a possible relationship he may have with Iranian-Norwegian Bahareh Letnes (28). She is owner-operator of a seafood export firm. Sandberg and Letnes are currently on holiday together in Iran.
Norwegian tabloid VG and Filter Nyheter was the first to break the story.
“I’m on holiday. Otherwise I have no comment to VG’s desire to know the details of my private life,” Sandberg wrote in an e-mail to VG.
January this year Letnes established the firm “B&H General Trading Company Bahareh Letnes”, for the purpose of exporting seafood.
“The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries does not have, and has not had any relationship to the company or anything else that has been referred to,” an official statement said from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and Per Sandberg.
Sandberg was in Iran in October 2016 on an official visit, for the purpose of stimulating exports of Norwegian seafood to the country.