Bankers jailed, sued as Iceland seeks culprits for crisis | |
Published on 05-12-2010 | |
Source: AFP More than a year and a half after Iceland's major banks failed, all but sinking the country's economy,
police have begun rounding up a number of top bankers while other Since Iceland's three largest banks -- Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir -- collapsed in late 2008, their former executives and owners have largely been living untroubled lives abroad. But the publication last month of a parliamentary inquiry into the island nation's profound financial and economic crisis signaled a
turning of the tide, laying much of the blame for the downfall on the On Wednesday, the administrators of Glitnir's liquidation announced they had filed a two-billion-dollar (1.6-billion-euro) lawsuit in a New
York court against former large shareholders and executives for alleged "I think this lawsuit is without precedence in Iceland," Steinunn Gudbjartsdottir, who chairs Glitnir's so-called winding-up board, told reporters in Reykjavik. "It is about higher figures than we have ever seen," she said, adding that she expected Glitnir to file more lawsuits going forward, but that "it is unlikely any will be this big." Glitnir said it was suing "Jon Asgeir Johannesson, formerly its principal shareholder, Larus Welding, previously Glitnir's chief
executive, Thorstein Jonsson, its former chairman and other former The bank also said it was "taking action against its former auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for facilitating and helping to conceal
the fraudulent transactions engineered by Johannesson and his Glitnir's suit, filed in the New York state Supreme Court on Tuesday, blamed most of the bank's woes on "Johannesson and his
co-conspirators," who had "conspired to systematically loot Glitnir Johannesson, the former owner of the now-defunct Baugur investment group with stakes in a number of British high street stores including
Hamleys, Debenhams and House of Fraser, said he was shocked by the "The distortions and the nonsense in the lawsuit are incredible," he told the Pressan news website. Glitnir's administrators "can get a 10-year-prison sentence for misusing US courts in this manner," he insisted. The bank's chief administrator Gudbjartsdottir took his comments in stride. "I didn't expect him to be happy with the lawsuit," she said. In addition to its New York suit, Glitnir said it had "secured a freezing order from the High Court in London against Jon Asgeir
Johannesson's worldwide assets, including two apartments in Manhattan's Gudbjartsdottir said Johannesson had just 48 hours to come up with a satisfactory list of his assets. "If he does not give the right information he faces a jail sentence," she said. Four former Kaupthing executives, who all live in Luxembourg, have meanwhile been arrested in Iceland in the past week and Interpol has
issued an international arrest warrant for that bank's ex-chairman, Former head of the bank's domestic operations, Ingolfur Helgason, and former chief risk officer Steingrimur Karason were arrested late
Monday on arrival from Luxembourg, just days after former Kaupthing The 49-year-old Einarsson, who lives in London, said late Tuesday he had no plans to travel to Iceland to be arrested. "I'm absolutely flabbergasted about the latest news," he told the Frettabladid daily. "There is in my opinion no need for the arrests or custody rulings, and I will not of my own free will take part in the play that it appears is being staged to soothe the Icelandic people," he said. "I'll put the human rights I enjoy here in Britain to the test and will not therefore come home (to Iceland) to these conditions without being forced," he added. |
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