Web

Deutsche Bank has studiously tried to hide some transactions with Kaupthing in 2008 – and in December 2016 probably thought it had succeeded when it agreed to settle for €425m to Kaupthing and two now bankrupt BVI companies set up in 2008 by Kaupthing. The story behind these deals figured in two Icelandic court cases and one of them, the so-called CLN case, has now taken an unexpected turn: the Supreme Court has ordered the Reykjavík Country Court to scrutinise the transactions as it reopens the CLN case. But what is Deutsche Bank hiding? “It’s not unlikely that an international bank wants to avoid being accused of market manipulation,” said Prosecutor Björn Þorvaldsson in Reykjavík District Court on October 11. ....

Vincent Tchenguiz and Kaupthing said on Tuesday they had settled a 2.2 billion pound lawsuit brought by the real estate mogul after a botched Serious Fraud Office investigation into the Icelandic bank’s collapse during the credit crisis.
... ...
Kaupthing said it had agreed to make unspecified payments to the Tchenguiz Family Trust (TFT) as part of the confidential settlement. Tchenguiz said he had withdrawn proceedings against all other co-defendants. .....

Tony Shearer, who has died aged 68, was chief executive of the merchant bank Singer & Friedlander until it was acquired by Kaupthing of Iceland, which rapidly drove it into bankruptcy. ....

Note (anrigaut): Sad news. The obituary is worth reading for the history (KSFIOM even get a brief mention) but is behind a paywall (I discovered you can register for free to read one article per week and was able to read it that way). If only the FSA had listened to Tony back in 2005 ...

Depositors in the island-branch of collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander have not only got their money back in full - they are to receive interest on top too. .....

In a formal signing ceremony 16 January 2003 a group of Icelandic investors and the German bank Hauck & Aufhäuser purchased shares in a publicly-owned Icelandic bank. Paul Gatti represented the German bank, proudly airing the intension of being a long-term owner together with the Icelandic businessman Ólafur Ólafsson. What neither Gatti nor Ólafsson mentioned was that earlier that same day, at a meeting abroad, their representatives had signed a secret contract guaranteeing that the Icelandic bank Kaupthing, called ‘puffin’ in their emails, would finance the H&A purchase in Búnaðarbanki. All profit would accrue to Ólafsson, in the end $100m he later split with Kaupthing’s other large shareholder, Lýður and Ágúst Guðmundsson. Thus, Ólafsson and the H&A bankers fooled Icelandic authorities with the diligent help of advisors from Société General. – This 14 year old saga has surfaced now thanks to the Panama Papers. What emerges is a story of deception similar to the famous al Thani story, which incidentally sent Ólafsson and some of the Kaupthing managers involved in the ‘puffin plot’ to prison in 2015. Ólafsson is however still a wealthy businessman in Iceland. ....

The German bank Hauck & Aufhäuser was never an actual investor in Búnaðarbankinn bank when the Icelandic State’s 45.8 percent stake in the latter was sold in January of 2003. This is the conclusion of the Special Investigation Commission (SIC) of Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, RÚV reports. SIC concludes that authorities were systematically deceived leading up to and following the sale.

A press release from the committee states that detailed written documents indisputably show that the German bank, Kaupþing hf. In Iceland, Kaupthing Bank in Luxembourg, and a group of men working for and on behalf of investor Ólafur Ólafsson used secret agreements to hide the true ownership of shares attributed to Hauck & Aufhäuser. The actual owner was instead the offshore company Welling & Partners, registered on Tortola, the British Virgin Islands. With numerous secret agreements and transfers of funds, among others from Kaupþing hf. to an account of Welling & Partners at Hauck & Aufhäuser, the German bank was guaranteed indemnity in the deal with Búnaðarbankinn.
....

Iceland has differed from the rest of Europe and the US by allowing bankers to be prosecuted as criminals

Iceland has found nine senior bankers guilty for crimes relating to the economic meltdown in 2008.

The Supreme Court in Reykjavik returned guilty verdicts for all nine defendants in the Kaupthing Bank market manipulation case, one of the biggest cases of its kind in Iceland's history.
...

Iceland’s Supreme Court has returned a guilty verdict for all nine defendants in the Kaupþing market manipulation case, the court trial for which began in April 2015.

Back in June last year, the Reykjavik District Court found seven of the nine defendants guilty, acquitting two.
...

Hearings began in the Icelandic Supreme Court in the Kaupþing bank market manipulation case at 8 am today, Vísir reports. This is one of the largest economic crimes to reach Icelandic courts, but altogether nine people are accused in the case, for market manipulation and/or breach of trust between November 1, 2007, and October 8, 2008.

Among the accused are Kaupþing’s leaders before the 2008 financial crisis: Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, former director of the bank, Sigurður Einarsson, former board director and Ingólfur Helgason who directed the bank in Iceland.

All three received sentences without probation in the Reykjavík District Court in June last year. At the time, four others received sentences with probation, and one woman was acquitted. Some charges against the bank’s director in Luxembourg, Magnús Guðmundsson, were dismissed, but he was acquitted of others.

...

[The prosecutor] would like to see all those accused in the case sentenced and a heavier sentence for those who were found guilty in district court. Furthermore, he would like to see the dismissed charges against Magnús Guðmundsson reconsidered.

Together with leaders from Russia, Ukraine and a few other countries Iceland isn’t happy to compare itself with the story of prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson played a key role in tonight’s exposure of the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. Documents shown do not support his earlier version of his involvement with Wintris, the BVI linked to him and his wife.

In an interview on Rúv professor of history and a frequent commentator on the collapse and related matters Guðni Th. Johannesson said: “First and foremost I find it sad that men, who want to and claim they want to lead by good example, who say the grand plan is to believe in Iceland then decide that their money is better off elsewhere.” – His words are directed to the prime minister who repeatedly has talk of the necessity to believe in Iceland.

...

During the boom years Iceland turned into possibly the most offshorised country in the world as I’ve pointed out earlier. Iceland has done remarkably well following the collapse in autumn 2008 but the economic revival will have its limits if its political class prefers to be compared to Russia and Ukraine.