Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, a Danish couple behind the acclaimed Stedsans forest retreat in Sweden, became overburdened with debt. They decided to abandon their luxurious resort, fleeing to Guatemala to evade the law.

As an extra “Fuck you” to anyone who tried to investigate the grounds of their abandoned, bankrupted business, they left behind 158 barrels of human waste and several dead animals.

Stedsans was an eco-friendly retreat that featured 16 rustic wooden cottages designed to connect guests with nature. The place got great reviews and was a hit among the wealthy looking for a way to commune with nature before returning to their concrete jungles.

Couple Accused of Abandoning Swedish Eco-Resort

Despite the rave reviews, the resort fell on hard times, and tax debts mounted that were owed to both the Danish and Swedish authorities. When they vanished before Christmas, abandoning the retreat and its animals, it was discovered that wastewater had been running straight into the surrounding forest.

Hansen and Helbæk had reportedly fled to Guatemala, where they’re starting fresh with a new hotel business. In their farewell message on the Stedsans website, they justified their escape by claiming that “being soul-driven entrepreneurs in a country where taxes are some of the highest in the world” was an impossible task.

Authorities have since branded their actions as environmental crime, as tends to happen when you leave behind 158 barrels of human shit and a gaggle of dead animals in your wake as you make a mad dash to Central America to escape a tax bill.

When confronted by a journalist from a Swedish newspaper, Hansen admitted that he owed around 7 million Swedish krona, but denied any wrongdoing when it came to the deaths of the animals he and his partner abandoned on their property.

He called the Swedish tax authorities a “narcissistic entity” and says that because of them, he has been “sentenced to a life in poverty.”