Barrels of human waste and dead animals dumped by eco lodge owners
Two 'soul-driven entrepreneurs' fled their acclaimed Swedish eco-resort for a new life, reportedly leaving behind huge tax debts, dead animals and 158 barrels of human waste.
Danish chefs Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, who used to run a rooftop restaurant in Copenhagen, set up Stedsans, an internationally celebrated forest retreat in Halland, southern Sweden, after feeling the 'call of the wild'.
They vanished from Sweden several months ago and were tracked down to Guatemala where they have set up a hotel business.
'When you read this we have probably been declared bankrupt by the Swedish tax authorities,' they said on their website. 'All we ever wanted was to be a part of creating a more beautiful planet.'
Social media influencers had gushed over Stedsans' 16 wooden cottages in the Swedish wilderness.
When Mr Hansen and Ms Helbæk vanished, they reportedly abandoned multiple animals and 158 barrels of human excrement for compost toilets.
Staff said some of the animals, which included ducks, had later died.
Wastewater had also been allowed to run into the forest, according to an investigation by the Dagens Nyheter and Politiken newspapers.
On Thursday, the couple claimed they had acted lawfully over the barrels of waste.
'For people in rural Sweden it's a very normal thing,' they said on social media. 'It's also a very important part of the permaculture principles that you deal with your own s---.'
Local authorities described their actions as an 'environmental crime'.
They said proper procedures for compost toilets, including reporting the intention to use them and having barrels collected by the local authority, had not been followed.
The newspaper investigation found the couple owed millions of kroner to the Danish tax authorities before they moved to Sweden in 2016 and built up a reported £470,000 debt to the Swedish taxman. Stedsans was declared bankrupt in March.
'We came very far with Stedsans, but we also had to realise on the way that being soul-driven entrepreneurs on a mission in a country where taxes are some of the highest in the world and bureaucracy is relentless, it is an impossible task,' the couple stated on their website.
They accused the journalists behind the investigation of being responsible for 'our life's biggest (literal!) sh-tstorm'.
'The article claims that we have been damaging the local environment with our procedures at our permaculture resort and that we have left animals to die. All these claims and several others are false.'
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