This March 2013 video is called Iceland to charge ex-Kaupthing bank chief with fraud.
From the BBC:
12 December 2013 Last updated at 18:32 GMT
Iceland jails former Kaupthing bank bosses
Four former bosses from the Icelandic bank Kaupthing have been sentenced to between three and five years in prison.
They are the former chief executive, the chairman of the board, one of the majority owners and the chief executive of the Luxembourg branch.
They were accused of hiding the fact that a Qatari investor bought a stake in the firm with money lent – illegally – by the bank itself.
Kaupthing collapsed in 2008 under the weight of huge debts.
For years, Kaupthing and other Icelandic banks had aggressively pursued overseas expansion plans, but when they went into administration, they brought the country’s economy to its knees.
Just a few weeks before the collapse, Kaupthing announced that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad al-Thani had bought a 5.1% stake during the financial crisis in 2008.
The move was seen as a confidence boost for the bank.
Legal costs
Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, the former chief executive, received five and a half years, while Sigurdur Einarsson, former chairman of the board, was sentenced to five years in jail.
These are the heaviest sentences for financial fraud in Iceland’s history.
The court gave Olafur Olafsson, one of the majority owners three years and Magnus Gudmundsson the former chief executive of the Luxembourg branch, three and a half years.
None of them were in court for the decision but it is expected that they will appeal.
The four were also made to pay their own legal costs for the case, which amount to millions of pounds.
The special prosecutor, Olafur Hauksson, said the deal had influenced the bank’s share price. He also said the loans provided for the deal were illegal.
Mr Hauksson told the BBC that there was still another, bigger case against Kaupthing Bank ongoing, in which it is accused of market manipulation. It is due to come to court at the end of January.
Deceived
Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander was the UK arm of Kaupthing Bank – the largest of the Icelandic banks that went into administration in October 2008.
According to the Icelandic media, the charges state that the deal was done by first depositing a loan from Kaupthing bank into shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.
The money then went from there to a Cypriot based company called Choice, which was owned by Olafsson, Sheikh al-Thani and al-Thani’s adviser.
From there it was moved to another firm called Q Iceland Finance, also owned by al-Thani, and then finally ended up back in the bank to pay for the shares.
It was never publicly stated that the company owned by Olafsson was party to the deal.
Sheikh al-Thani did not testify but he gave a statement to the prosecutors. In it, he said he did not know of any direct involvement by Olafsson to the deal.
Britain: Lloyds Bank bosses were slapped with a record £28 million fine by regulators yesterday for forcing front-line staff to flog products to customers or face pay cuts and demotion: here.
Related articles
- Iceland Sends Four Bank Bosses to the Slammer (truthdig.com)
- Four Kaupthing bankers sentenced to prison for market abuses in 2008 (theguardian.com)
- Four Kaupthing Executives Sentenced To Prison (grapevine.is)
- Icelandic bank executives sentenced to jail (icenews.is)
- Icelandic bankers jailed for abuses related to Qatari investment (independent.ie)
- Ex-Kaupthing bankers convicted of abuses related to Qatari investment (uk.reuters.com)
- Iceland Jails Bank Bosses (newser.com)
- Four Kaupthing bankers sentenced to prison for market abuses in 2008 – #WorldNews (execdaily.wordpress.com)
- Four Bankers in Iceland Sentenced to Jail for the FRAUD they committed. Including the Chairman of the Bank. (sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com)
Pingback: Rap, other music, and social change | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:15 am (PDT) . Posted by:
“James Hutchings” apeloverage
Australias major banks have funded companies responsible for illegal logging, forced evictions, inadequate compensation, food shortages and child labour, according to a new report.
The report, Banking on Shaky Ground, by charity Oxfam, found that all four major banks the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ have lent to Third World companies accused of forcing people from their land.
The report found NAB had lent more than $200 million to Asian palm oil giant Wilmar, which has been linked to land grabs, and was named the worlds least environmentally friendly company by Newsweek.
Oxfam Australia also accused Commonwealth of investing in an agribusiness giant whose Brazilian sugar mill is, it says, illegally sourcing sugar from indigenous lands.
ANZ was financing a Cambodian sugar plantation involved in child labour, military backed land grabs, forced evictions and food shortages, while Westpac has supported a timber company in PNG accused of logging pristine rainforest through an invalid lease arrangement.
(Source: SBS website)
Pingback: Neo-colonialism in Greece, Iceland, Thailand | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Icelandic government collapses | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Austerity in Greece, Ukraine, and Iceland | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Panama Papers, big corruption scandal | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Icelandic prime minister’s downfall in Panama corruption scandal | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Icelandic anti-corruption demonstrations continue | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Icelanders keep fighting their ‘Panama Papers’ government | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Icelandic conservative Prime Minister’s downfall in paedophilia scandal | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Sexism, Panama papers, other scandals in Iceland | Dear Kitty. Some blog