Norway bought shipowner Hilmar Reksten's shares in 1975 while his fortune sat hidden abroad; his estate went bankrupt and his heir paid back 60 million kroner

Hilmar Reksten founded his shipping company in Bergen in 1929. In 1966 his son Rolf sued for his share of his dead mother's estate, won, and was pushed out of the family and the firm. In 1973 his daughter Astrid settled a similar suit. In May 1975 an arbitration ordered Reksten to pay the yard Aker 234 million kroner for cancelled ships. On 31 May 1975 the Storting agreed in secret session to buy his industrial and shipping shares for 186 million kroner to protect Aker's 11,400 jobs. A new state guarantee institute backed his fleet with 741 million kroner. In spring 1976 he was charged with tax and currency fraud. On 17 December 1979 he was convicted on one of eight counts. He died on 1 July 1980. The estate was insolvent, and in November 1980 the state petitioned for bankruptcy. In 1981 it emerged that Hambros Bank managed much of his foreign fortune, later estimated at 500 million kroner or more. Settlements with Hambros in 1982 and 1995 returned 400 million kroner to the state. In 1988 the Supreme Court ruled his art collection belonged to the bankrupt estate, and it was auctioned abroad^†. In 1990 his daughter Grace, sole heir under a 1978 will, settled with the estate for 60 million kroner and a clinic on Lanzarote^†. In 2022 Aftenposten reported that a grandson, Richard Hoyer, had found a contract between Reksten and Astrid. Reksten is buried at his Fjøsanger estate^†.