Workers' Youth League membership scandal

The Workers' Youth League affair was a political affair, where leaders of the Workers' Youth League (AUF) were charged with deliberately inflating membership numbers to receive increased government funding. Two former treasurers and two former leaders of the Oslo chapter were found guilty of fraud, and given prison sentences, for having unlawfully received 648,000 kr in grants from the City of Oslo between 1992 and 1994. The convicted were Ragnar Bøe Elgsaas, Anders Hornslien, Bjørn Jarle Rødberg Larsen and Anders Greif Mathisen. Anders Mathisen's sentence was suspended.

On 2 March 1995, the newspaper Verdens Gang revealed that AUF's Oslo branch had artificially inflated their membership numbers from 1992 to 1994, and as a result received NOK 600,000 more than they were entitled to in government grants. For each new member recruited, AUF received nearly NOK 300 from the Oslo City Council. The yearly membership fee was at the time NOK 30.

The scam was accomplished by transferring money from AUF's main bank account into AUF-treasurer Bjørn Jarle Rødberg Larsen's private bank account, from which he then transferred money back into AUF’s account to pay for new members. By doing this, AUF's membership was inflated by 2,300 between 1992 and 1994, AUF obtained more than NOK 600.000 from government funds.

On 7 March 1995, five days after the case became public the Oslo administration started an investigation into the matter. On 11 March, the leader of Oslo AUF, Ragnar Bøe Elgsaas, submitted a report to the City Council, in which he admitted to inflating the membership numbers submitted to city, and that they had later received increased grants based upon these incorrect numbers. In his report, Elgsaas referred to this practice as 'advancing' money to pay for membership fees for people whom AUF had reason to believe wanted to become members, or renew their memberships with the party. The same day as he pleaded guilty, he resigned from his position as leader of Oslo AUF.

On 14 March, former leaders of AUF, Jens Stoltenberg, the Deputy Leader of the Norwegian Labour Party at that time, and Turid Birkeland, admitted that the lying about AUF's total membership to pay for membership fees had become a common and accepted practice. On 16 March, the police started a formal criminal investigation of AUF's Oslo chapter. The Treasurer Office of the Oslo administration concluded on 20 May that AUF Oslo had wrongfully received NOK 600,000 in government grants and NOK 48,000 in seminar subsidies.

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