Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, the public body which investigates large scale financial cases, has been conducting its own investigation into the collapse of the Icelandic banks.
Last weekend’s leak of Kaupthing Bank’s unusual loans portfolio has caused the SFO to ramp up its investigation in recent days, according to British newspaper The Telegraph.
A special team within the SFO is investigating the leaked document containing details of huge unsecured loans to a tight-knit group of businesses. The document contains details of all Kaupthing loans over EUR 45 million. There were 205 in total. The SFO has also been receiving information from former UK branch staff members, investors and customers.
The SFO is said to be searching for more individuals who have links with the bank to come forward. The loans document from Kaupthing shows that the large majority of the loans went to Kaupthing’s owners and related parties. Many of the loans have little or no security. In addition to this, many customers took loans from the bank to buy shares in the bank, using nothing but the shares themselves as collateral for the loans.
Although no official investigation is underway, the SFO has been looking into Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir for many months, at least since the collapse last October.
Olafur Thor Hauksson, Iceland’s special prosecutor in the official banking investigation, said in an interview with mbl.is that the SFO has made no formal contact with his team and has not requested any documentation from it. He said his team of investigators first heard about the SFO investigation through the media like everyone else.
This is great news! I hope there will be a serious investigation by the SFO, I don’t trust my fellow countrymen to investigate Kaupthing or the financial collapse in general.
The Serious Fraud Office’s logo looks pretty serious.
When the KB loan portfolio was leaked last week the FME reacted to the public anger by firing 3 men from Old Glitnir resolution comity that is responsible for selling assets among other things
the FME did this for a good reason,
but now one of those 3 men, Kristján Óskarsson has been hired as CEO of Glitnir,
http://glitnirbank.com/home/198-new-ceo-of-glitnir-bank.html
this is a message from the Icelandic Mafia
they are like a state with in the state, no one can touch them, they still control all the banks except the CB,
“Olafur Thor Hauksson, Iceland’s special prosecutor in the official banking investigation, said in an interview with mbl.is that the SFO has made no formal contact with his team and has not requested any documentation from it. He said his team of investigators first heard about the SFO investigation through the media like everyone else.”
I wonder why :)
Im sure Björn Bjarnason former minister of justice hand picked him for the job just because how special the special prosecutor is, im not saying hes crooked, just special.
This case must be extremely interesting for the SFO because of all the information they are getting, shareholders, customers, investors and a small nation trying to expose the biggest fraud in world history,
some MP’s have been complaining over the KB loan files leak,
the fact is that what happened in the banks is a threat to national security and should be dealt with accordingly,
unfortunately we dont have any effective means to deal with a situation like this, at least not peacefully,
i wonder why the Sheik Al-Thani loan is not in the report from KB, the loan took place before the documents were presented at KB, it should be in the files.
some info in Icelandic
http://glitnirbank.com/home/198-new-ceo-of-glitnir-bank.html
http://eyjan.is/blog/2009/08/05/vikid-ur-skilanefnd-glitnis-a-fostudaginn-radinn-framkvaemdastjori-glitnis-i-dag-er-verid-ad-gefa-fme-langt-nef/
Kb is not the only bank that needs to be investigated,
Glitnir had a bonus system for its staff, “economic value added-system (EVA)” this means they get bonuses every time they manage to lend someone money regardless if the ever get it back,
a bit like the Subprime Crisis explained here by
Bird and Fortune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJmTCYmo9g
In Glitnir’s case, like KB most of the loans went to a handful of big clients or company’s related to them.
I shouldn’t think anyone in Iceland needs to be worried. We don’t call the SFO the “Serious Farce Office” here in the UK for no reason.
I am not convinced this leak came from Iceland to DV but from people related to KSF in UK.
The hot pot (heitapottinum) gossip is that the UK FSA and Treausry knows how bad they are going to look once judicial review of decision to take Kautphgin Singer and Friedlander under Northern Rock is going to be so they are stirring up this first.
Reason SFO can be invovled is majority of loans made were to UK based businessmen not to Icleanders. But that is not the primary reason for the interest.
It is for political ass covering purposes. The asses for Darling, UK FSA and Treasury.
They know there was no good reason to be justified to take down Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander.
http://www.kaupthingsingers.co.uk/pages/2304?path=K/133944/PR/200903/1297639.xml
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/03/16/kaupthing-uk-legal-case-makes-high-court-progress/
>“Olafur Thor Hauksson, Iceland’s special prosecutor in the official banking investigation, said in an interview with mbl.is that the SFO has made no formal contact with his team and has not requested any documentation from it. He said his team of investigators first heard about the SFO investigation through the media like everyone else.”
>I wonder why :)
Obviously because this is a political stirrup job created by UK government and Darling in particular to try and reduce the impact of the coming report from judicial review of the taking down of Kautphing Singer and Friedlander under Northern Rock Act.
It anticipates the very nasty things are going to be said about UK FSA and Darling over the justification for taking down Iceland’s biggest company and last standing bank at the time :
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_102_08.htm
“Acting on the advice of the Bank and FSA, and in light of announcements made by the Icelandic authorities in recent days, the Chancellor has taken action today to protect the retail depositors in Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, a UK-based banking subsidiary of Kaupthing Bank. He has taken this action to ensure the stability of the UK financial system. Savers’ money is safe and secure.
The FSA has determined that Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander no longer meets its threshold conditions, and is likely to be unable to continue to meet its obligations to depositors.”
” likely to be unable ” that has got to be the most weasel wording that will come back to haunt HM Treausury and Darling in coming months.
Its pretty transparent what this sudden SFO interest in the loan book is all about and why suddenly it pops up unilaterally in the UK press * before * Ólafur Þór Hauksson is told.
100% pure politics campaign.
“We don’t call the SFO the “Serious Farce Office” here in the UK for no reason.”
They are probably at the same level as our Special prosecutors office, the level of corruption is probably similar in UK, im sure the UK gov made sure to protect the Neo liberal financial system by hiring only idiots to work for the SFO.
Fisy
” likely to be unable ” that has got to be the most weasel wording that will come back to haunt HM Treausury and Darling in coming months.”
Not a snowball in hell’s chance of meeting their obligations would have been more accurate.
Instead of posting such rubbish why don’t you provide some proof that any of the Icelandic banks were solvent or run in a professional, non-criminal manner.