“This information did not come from us. I have no knowledge of this issue and can therefore neither confirm nor deny it,” said Julius Thorfinnsson, Stodir Invest (formerly FL Group) spokesman.
Thorfinnsson was talking to mbl.is about the ISK 30 million his company paid to the Independence Party in 2006.
In an interview with mbl.is, Thorfinnsson said that none of the current staff at Stodir Invest know anything about the secret payment. He said those looking for information would be best to ask Hannes Smarason, who was president of the company at the time.
“can therefore neither confirm nor deny it.”
…which, since time immemorial, has always meant “ok you got me, but I’ll never admit it.”
And the Saga of Iceland corruption continues…
Well when we rethink the speech of Davið Oddsson during the National Meeting and his attack toward Hannes Smarason..Well i would not be surprised that the information came from him…..:-)
…And something tells me that there is more to come…..
Landsbanki also gave 25 million to the party at the same time :)
Corporations who give money to the party in power in exchange for influence is very common in many democratic nations.
This is just plain election time pandering given the timing of this news. The new law coming into force soon will require full disclosure of such interest.
We are now up to 85m :)
its funny how most of those payments to the Independence party seem to be at the same time some government property is sold,
like HS (energy company) to Glitnir and FL group = Geysir green energy, some Americans want to buy HS now, not surprising,
the Independence party is like a lepper now,
no one would touch them with a 10ft pole,
the only way for the Independece party to survive this election now is to be silent,
if they are in the next gov it will be because of a extreamly obvious cheat.
This (vague) political (attack) ad brought to you by the Social Democrats.
I heard that Independence party members also may or may not eat children and small furry animals with big lovable eyes. But when asked they would not confirm it.
OH MY GOD, SO MUCH CORRUPTION IN ICELAND, THIS COUNTRY IS THE SHAME OF SCANDINAVIA…
ThinkAboutIt said
“This (vague) political (attack) ad brought to you by the Social Democrats.”
I voted for the Independence party in the last election, this secret of corruption, pay offs and links between big companys and politics was so carefully hidden the general public had no idea, we were told everything was ok until the second bank collapsed and we didnt know much about the corruption until the government was kicket out, that started the ball rolling,
this whole mess is alot more complicated than what meets the eye at first, for example the matter of FL Group and Glitnir buying the state owned HS energy company, nine days later the Independence party gets a 30m payment from FL Group, that payment was not even discussed by the board of FL
so it was probably illegal according to corporate laws, this energy company FL group and Glitnir started, Geysir Green energy was only an investment package to be strucured and sold, i dont believe for a second that those people were interested in green energy,
I will never vote for the inependence party again for obvius reasons,
same goes for the Progressive party who is just as rotten and courrupt,
the progressive party will have to clean up the mess, they have zero trust here in Iceland.
Why did you vote for them in the first place? Have they changed the core beliefs of what they stand for? The problem is the bad apples in the party that needs to be done away with(strung up and flogged in my humble opinion). The basic ideas of the party are good ones, the problem with it (and most if not all Icelandic politicians and politics) in my eyes is it seems like a bunch of not very grown up people are the only ones who run for office.