NiP CEO defends HeatoN

Earlier in the week, a report by Aftonbladet Esport revealed that the ex-owners of Ninjas in Pyjamas, including Emil "⁠HeatoN⁠" Christensen, are to stand trial over accounting irregularities which occurred when the organisation was owned by former parent company Stockholm E-Sport Produktion AB.

HeatoN and the other two former owners - who remain anonymous - are accused of failing to pay employment tax on the salaries of NiP's players. The issue was brought to the authorities by an auditor who requested a financial statement from Stockholm E-Sport Produktion AB, which sold its assets to a new company, called Ninjas in Pyjamas AB, before filing for bankruptcy.

HeatoN was unaware of the state of NiP's finances, insists Per Lilliefelth

The scandal will not affect NiP's current operations, stressed HeatoN, who told police that it was one of the other owners who was responsible for managing the company's finances.

And Per Lilliefelth has now leapt to the defence of HeatoN sharing new details about the finances of the organisation back then and revealing that one of the other former owners was embezzling money from the company.

"Nobody thought that the business side of NiP performed any worse than the team as the CEO kept on running the business," he wrote. "The revenue during this period was not enough to keep the business running in the company, which at this time was Stockholms Esport Produktion AB.

"The money coming in was simply not enough to send the team around the world to compete. As the team won and prize money coming in, the CEO did not pay taxes in order to keep the money so he could keep the organization running. A negative spiral begun, which only the CEO had knowledge of. Emil was kept in the dark. Current management does not believe this happened out of bad intentions or that it was even planned, the team was just not profitable enough.

"This continued through 2012 and 2013, until Emil eventually found out in 2014. The story of the discovery might be amusing to some, but it left Emil alone in potential disaster. One day, the CEO at the time texted Emil to inform he that he was hospitalized and hard to reach. As a result of this Emil gained access to the bank to take control to make sure the team ran smoothly during this period. He got access to the bank, where he discovered that his unfaithful partner was healthy and spending the team money in Thailand.

"Emil was fortunate enough to discover this in time, and a friend of his initiated a rescue to save NiP. There was no time to loose in order to make sure the players received their salaries and were able to play for the fans.

"During this process Diglife came in and funded a new company, Ninjas in Pyjamas Gaming AB at the end of February 2014. This was done in order to save NiP and provide Emil with tools to continue building his passion, NiP and electronic sports."

You can read Per Lilliefelth's full statement on the issue by clicking here.