The disgraced former chief executive of one of Denmark’s top IT companies stands trial for the country’s biggest fraud case ever

Bagger. That one name has become synonymous with fraud and intrigue after it dominated the front pages of Danish newspapers for more than six months.

Enigmatic chief executive of computer company I.T. Factory, Stein Bagger, was living the high-life. He had been named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and his unstoppable success with his company afforded him every luxury imaginable – from buying a 40 carat diamond for his wife to his 17 million kroner yacht.

However, the high-life came to an abrupt end when the businessman disappeared in mysterious circumstances while on holiday with his wife and some friends in Dubai last November.

Within days, the missing man was linked with a fraud of epic proportions that swindled some of Denmark’s top companies out of nearly a billion kroner. Bagger allegedly ran a profitable leasing scam that saw Danske Bank conned out of more than 200 million kroner and IBM of 75.4 million kroner.

An Interpol-led manhunt came to an end after Bagger flew to the States and drove across the country, only to turn himself in to police at a downtown LA station more than a week later.

The public prosecutor dispatched investigators to uncover the details behind Bagger’s missing week, but so far the authorities have not filled the public in on the mystery.

Having been extradited to Denmark, Bagger has cooperated with police to unravel the details of his scheme, which he claims he was forced into after threats were made on his life. The 42-year-old had been keeping some interesting company in the months before his arrest, reportedly hiring a prominent Hells Angels member as his personal bodyguard.

While in custody he was attacked by another inmate, but refused to give police a possible motive for the assault. Bagger has already admitted to defrauding I.T. Factory of 831 million kroner, but now faces additional charges of being an accomplice to a brutal attack on a former business associate. Allan Vestergaard was beaten with a hammer by two unknown assailants, days before the I.T. Factory swindle became public and has lived in high-security isolation since the incident.

Having spent more than five months in custody, the end to the saga is nearing as Bagger faces the start of his three-day trial today. The insatiable appetite by the media for a glimpse of the alleged conman has resulted in a scramble for spaces in the public gallery at the courthouse and Bagger’s young daughter being spirited out of the country to protect her from upsetting headlines.

The prosecution is seeking a record sentence of 12 years for the fraud and forgery, but it is unlikely that the story will end when the judge’s gavel falls on Friday. Six books have already been published about the scandal and a film is on the way. While they detail the intricacies behind Bagger’s scheme it is possible that unless the man himself divulges the details, we may never truly know what drove him to commit the biggest fraud in Danish history.