Britain’s Serious Fraud Office will formally begin its investigation into the operations of the failed Icelandic banks Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki in the United Kingdom.
The investigation will especially focus on loans which several known individuals received from the banks, sources for The Observer within the SFO claim.
Initial investigations have been underway since February into financial crimes and market abuses allegedly carried out by the banks, and the SFO has been collecting reams of information on the operations of the Icelandic banks in Britain. Information has come, among other sources, through its dealings with Eva Joly, adviser to Iceland’s Special Prosecutor for the banking crisis and through co-operation with Icelandic investigators, MBL.is reports.
Meanwhile, The Sunday Telegraph reported that the SFO is to begin a formal investigation specifically into Kaupthing after four months of information gathering. The paper also reports that the former Kaupthing board has hired the services of the respected solicitor Ian Burton from Burton Copeland to look out for their interests with regard to the investigation.
Bankers and businessmen: Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
Is it possibly the case that certain acquisition-keen businessmen took control of Kaupthing in order to basically suck in deposits and lend them to their own companies on terms that gave them all the upside and basically walk away from any investment failings leaving the bank to bear the losses? If so – the bank and its creditors should have been protected from such activity by the directors – who may be in big trouble if they connived at this kind of approach. Still remains to be seen what happened though – and I appreciate Gordon Clown has every motive to use the SFO to try and justify his actions and blame the losses caused to third parties, including UK savers using KSFIOM, on others.
How many times have the SFO ever successfully prosecuted financial criminals?
Only once isn’t it?
And whose money is the former Kaupthing board using to pay for this cool solicitor’s whitewashing services?
I suggest we pay him to prosecute them instead.
SFO has a hit-rate of about 50%.
The issue isn’t their success but the number of cases they actually take to court: it measures tens each year. Really, they should be nailing hundreds but they simply don’t have the resources. Also financial crime is really difficult to spot unless there is a failure of some sort, or if a whistleblower gives the game away.
The SFO occasionally make a big mess-up which then hits the headlines.
And think of it this way – if you’ve got the brains to untangle a complex web of financial deception/fraud are you going to stay with a poorly paid agency of the government? You would get a well paid job easily. It’s more profitable to be a poacher than a gamekeeper. Sure, the SFO work is steady – in fact it’s a job for life – but a good trader will take home 10/20/30 times the pay of an SFO investigator.
Mike (UK Nordic analyst) said:
“if you’ve got the brains to untangle a complex web of financial deception/fraud are you going to stay with a poorly paid agency of the government?”
Same argument applies to CPS (Crown Prosecution Service).
I was intrigued by the use of the words “Kaupthing board has hired the services of the respected solicitor.” Is there such a creature amongst criminal defence lawyers?
Peter & Mike – The SFO’s conviction rate last year was 68% and its average conviction rate over the past 20 years is 69%. That’s pretty damn good.
In style of Mike ( UK Nordic Analyst ), situation is as predictible as can be :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/10/15/uk-sfo-iceland-trip-bearing-fruit/#comment-96439
And he did say :
>And think of it this way – if you’ve got the brains to untangle a complex web of financial deception/fraud are you going to stay with a poorly paid agency of the government? You would get a well paid job easily. It’s more profitable to be a poacher than a gamekeeper. Sure, the SFO work is steady – in fact it’s a job for life – but a good trader will take home 10/20/30 times the pay of an SFO investigator.
It is very true enough. There are no Eva Jolys working there at UK FSO for sure.
They are worried for they jobs and will do what current government administration — Brown for next few months — does tell them to go after.
That thread links to this thread but for those that do not like reading all of long posts and miss something here it is :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/08/05/uk-serious-fraud-office-investigating-iceland/#comment-88377
Anyone other than Fisy have an opinion on how susceptible to covert political pressure the SFO is? I’d always assumed that they were entirely independent, especially after they only closed down the BAe investigation when publicly told to by the government.
Anyway, your points are weak Fisy. Whether the SFO is staffed by idiots or not and whether they’ve been leant on by the UK government or not, there can be absolutely no doubt that the banks are worth taking a look at. Eva is doing just that (I forget whether she thinks the whole affair is bigger than Elf or bigger than Enron) and she’s neither an idiot nor susceptible to UK pressure.
And, it’s worth noting, given the result of the judicial review, your accusation that you link to is no longer valid.
This investigation is making news in UK:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Serious-Fraud-Office-Probes-Icelandic-Bank-Kaupthing-Under-Investigation/Article/200912315501827