Icelandic businessman Jon Asgeir Johannesson has paid the banrupt estate of Glitnir Bank USD 15 million, or around ISK 2 billion.
Head of Glitnir’s resolution committee, Steinunn Gudbjartsdottir confirmed the payment in an interview with RUV. Glitnir is attempting to extract some two hundred billion kronur from Jon Asgeir and his close associates.
The Bank believes the former biggest shareholder still has plenty of assets at his disposal, sourcing an email sent shortly before the bank’s collapse that he had at least 40 billion kronur in British banks.
A London court yesterday confirmed Glitnir’s request to freeze Johannesson’s assets iternationally. The judge said he did not believe the defendent’s claim that he is down to his last million pounds (ISK 189 million).
We should stop calling him and then others “buisness-men”…that soubnd like they are doing serious business. these guys are gamblers, nothing more nothing less…that is no buisness. Business for me is something with a standing and continuing value. Somebody running a kiosk in Reykjavik for 20 yeras, that’s a buisness man!
Someione tryinhg to make money out of money…that’s pure and simple gambliong, and most of the time with illegal or at least imoral actions.
And that’
s what these guys are…w don’t call Capone a buisness man, do we?
Extremely well said, Bjartur!
I would not call those guys gamblers, gamblers usually take risks with their own money, they dont rob banks, pension funds, charities etc,
i see those guys as con men or simply as thieves.
Jon Asgeirs days will soon be numbere as a “businessman”,
http://www.glitnirbank.com/images/stories/GlitnirNYComplaintasfiled5112010.PDF
If I remember correctly this guy recently also paid for his fancy NYC appartment in cash….
I am sure he has been to the Cayman islands recently :-)
In the defense of Jón Ásgeir he did build his business up from scratch since 1989 starting by pushing trolleys and stacking shelves in his first store that be built with his father.
Bónus had to fight against the monopoloy — so it is not fair to say that he is not a businss man. He certainly is.
He did leverage his assets and ability to borrow during the boom years 2005- 2008 because money was availalbe to borrow cheaply thanks to wrong low interst policies of US Fedeeral Reserve ( Central Bank ) and Japanese.
In this Jón Ásgeir is more guilty than Björgólfur Thor who instead built up his foreiign brewing business in Russia and sold it to Heinkeni and then bought that money back into Iceland.
Jón Ásgeir did leverage up his borrowed money using his local assets and although Davið tried to stop him simply the interlocked interests of the bankers with his was too much.
But both Jón Ásgeir and Björgólfur Thor are real business men and entrepreneurs. Of that there is no doubt, because they made they money before the free money era from balls and hard work.
The real paper pushing gambler were a few — the poster boy of this group being Hannes Smárason.
Well said Fisy!
For the helvitis utlendingur, Icelandic-to-English dictionary:
ICELANDIC: because money was availalbe to borrow cheaply thanks to wrong low interst policies of US Fedeeral Reserve ( Central Bank ) and Japanese.
ENGLISH: Not our fault. Blame the wily Asiatics
ICELANDIC: Björgólfur Thor built up his foreiign brewing business in Russia and sold it to Heinkeni and then bought that money back into Iceland
ENGLISH: Mr. B cut a deal with the Russian Mafia, which helpfully murdered his competitors, while he laundered their narcotics & prostitution profits. A win-win proving the superiority of Icelandic business ethics.
ICELANDIC: But both are real business men and entrepreneurs. Of that there is no doubt, because they made they money before the free money era from balls and hard work.
ENGLISH: We’re so much better than you
pushing trolleys and stacking shelves,
Gummi
>Mr. B cut a deal with the Russian Mafia, which helpfully murdered his competitors, while he laundered their narcotics & prostitution profits.
I am glad this is a humor post, because if that is case, why did Heineken
>ENGLISH: We’re so much better than you
As you know full well this post I did make above is about unfair reference to Bjartur of them as gamblers. Both men worked hard to build they businesses. In different places of course.
So came not from being bankers or gamblers or paper pushers. These men clearly did start through they own efforts.
It has nothing to do with they nationality. If they were born in UK or US they would be the same. They would still have got the cheap money. During the ” free money era 2001- 2008 ” every one with business had opportunity to get this kind of loans.
It is just in the UK or US they would not have been able to get to position of controlling the banks like they did in Iceland.
*am glad this is a humor post, because if that is case, why did Heineken buy Bravo from Björgólfur Thor and his partners and fellow investor stating the ” absence of any corruption within the acquired, foreign-owned and foreign-run company ” as large reason.
And why this other investors of Los Angeles and also International Finance Corporation ( World Bank ) inves before that ? Was their due diligence that poor ?
” Bravo started out in 1993 on a greenfield site, originally bottling soft drinks under a Pepsi franchise, the Baltic Bottling Plant. In 1997, the company sold its soft drink facilities to Pepsi and diversified into the beer market. With a USD 25 million investment from Capital Group of Los Angeles through its Capital International Global Emerging Market Private Fund, for a 30% stake, Bjorgolfsson and Thorsteinsson subsequently expanded into the brewery business by focusing on premium beer brewing, producing three brands — the mainstream brand Ohota, the upper-mainstream brand Botchkarov, and the Löwenbrau brand, brewed under licence.
The brewery site covered 11 hectares in an industrial area of St. Petersburg less than 10 km. from the city centre. The site was previously an assembly factory for wood-framed windows and the facilities and land were converted in 1998 for use as a brewery.
The company also produced a line of mixed alcoholic drinks under a separate facility and located at a different site, making premixed cocktails and drinks in a can — so-called flavoured alcoholic beverages (FABs) — with such partners as Johnnie Walker and Gordon’s Gin. It reportedly had revenues of USD 20 million in 1998.
Bjorgolfsson and Thorsteinsson had acquired their beverage experience while working at Viking Brewery in Iceland. The duo focused heavily on the Botchkarov (literally, “the Barrel family”) brand, producing the first bottle of this premium Russian beer in 1998. In 1999, Russia’s beer consumption per capita stood at a mere 29.7 litres compared to 162.7 litres in the Czech Republic and 52.3 in Poland, according to Union of Russian Brewers data. The Russian beer market had doubled between 1999-2001, with total volume rising to 60 million hectolitres. The Russian beer market continued to grow as consumers switch from both hard liquor and lower-end beer to premium Russian beer. To boost sales and achieve rapid brand awareness by the masses, Bravo International invited 10,000 Russians to St. Petersburg’s city centre for a launch party and followed up with a major advertising campaign.
In December 2001, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) lent USD 27 million — (i) a senior A loan for IFC’s own account of USD 5 million, (ii) a syndicated B loan of USD 7 million, and (iii) a subordinated C loan for IFC’s own account of USD 15 million — to Bravo Holdings Ltd., a Cypriot-based company and 100% shareholder of Bravo International. This capital injection was used to fund an expansion plan valued at approximately USD 45 million, including investments in the company’s brewhouses, filling lines, fermentation tanks and distribution network. The major shareholders of Bravo Holdings were the founding Icelandic management of Bravo International, Bjorgolfsson and Thorsteinsson, and U.S.-based investment fund Capital International. Additional financing came from Russian and European banks.
Initial beer production capacity was one million hectolitres per annum. In 2001, Bravo reported sales of 2.5 million hectolitres of beer and 400,000 hectolitres of mixed alcoholic drinks. Within three years, Bravo International, Russia’s fastest-growing brewer, was heading for a volume of four million hectolitres in 2002. It quickly secured a 17% market share in the St. Petersburg region and 7% in the Moscow area.
After less than a decade of expansion, Bravo International was acquired in early 2002 by Heineken NV of The Netherlands, making the brewing multinational the fourth-largest brewer in Russia in terms of production volume and the country’s fastest-growing brewer. Heineken said one of the reasons for its Bravo International acquisition, which placed the Dutch giant in a good position from which to pursue rapid growth in this emerging beer market, was the absence of any corruption within the acquired, foreign-owned and foreign-run company. “
Fisy – I picked up the content of your post on the below link
http://www.invgr.com/bjorgolfur_thor_bjorgolfsson.htm
The source is shown as -
“INVg is your authoritative source for investment, real estate, franchising and employment opportunities in Greece.”
Is the connection Greece and Iceland? :)
>” The judge said he did not believe [ Jón Ásgeir's ] claim that he is down to his last million pounds (ISK 189 million). ”
I am with justice David Steel of UK High Court in questioning his claim he has only £1.1m of assets left ( and also in upholding freezing order ).
http://uti.is/2010/07/a-refreshing-clarity/
He will have more than that but it is true that he has lost most the equity and others also related to him — but they must pay they debts.
What is clear is that most of the money went from the bank and his pockets into pockets of mainly UK based business men that did sell him the overpriced companies he did buy in the UK and other places.
I do doubt very much that much of it went into personal assets at all.
> “Glitnir is attempting to extract some two hundred billion kronur [ GBP 1.07 billion ] from Jon Asgeir and his close associates. ”
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/05/12/iceland-glitnir-bank-investors-sued-for-siphoning-2-billion/#comment-163148
May 11 2010 complaint filed in New York Court by Glitnir winding up committe uses colourful langauge from its US lawyers that did file it.
I haven’t read US jusdges actual acceptance of any thing yet as it has not court date. So far its the complaintant lawyers opinion only.
Let us hope that they are showing the clarity that justice Steel of UK does, although US Federal courts are much more politicized places.
http://uti.is/2010/07/a-refreshing-clarity/
oops I post the same link twice.
I meant to post :
http://uti.is/2010/07/a-tale-of-a-‘low-standard-of-commercial-morality’/
instead of second link.
Terry wrote :
>The source is shown as -
>
>“INVg is your authoritative source for investment, real estate, franchising and employment opportunities in Greece.”
Like many investing in Russia ( foreigner or Russians ) they do use Cyprus companies a lot for this as business peopel — quite rightly — do not trust Russian legal system ;
this way the holding company is held out in safe jurisidcition with reasonable legal system like Cyprus.
The Bjorgolfs and Magnus were employees of the Bravo beer factory, not owners, they were put in charge of the company when the mafia took it over.
2 CEO’s of rival beer factories were murdered and one factory was burned to the ground, so there was plenty of business for Bravo.
A few days before Magnus was declared bankrupt he ran away to Russia and has not been seen or heard from since,
Bjorgolfur senior is also bankrupt and at the moment has the biggest bankruptcy for a individual in Icelandic history,not bad for a old convict, that record will surley be broken soon, by Jon Asgeir and by Bjorgolfur junior.
Gaumur, one of Jon Asgeirs companies must pay this year a bullet loan which amounted to 10 bn isk in the year 2007 in foreign currency, probably over 20 bn now, Gaumur top creditors are belived to be Kaupthing and Landsbankinn, Gaumur has no assets and is worthless,
Gaumur is the parent company of Gaum SA Holding, a Luxembourg company founded through some “drawer” companies in Tortola,
Egill Helgason asked Jon Asgeir about Tortola late 2008 and he had never heard of the place.
Jon Asgeir was a shadow controller of Glitnir bank and ran it (robbed it) trough Larus Welding, one of the companies used to suck money out of Glitnir was Stim ehf, 25 bn isk were lent to Stím just before the crash in 2008, i wonder where that money is now,
Stím was used to buy shares in Glitnir to manipulate share prices.
Jon Asgeir sent a e-mail to Larus Welding Okt 22 2008 under the name “Sterling deposits” marked “For your eyes only” in the e-mail there was a jpg document showing bank accounts at HBOS, Barclays, Alliance & Leicester, HSBC og Bank of Ireland. Total 202.474.420 pounds, he now says this money belongs to Iceland foods,
the CEO of Iceand foods, Malcolm Walker had no idea they had this 202 million pounds sterling in their bank accounts but backs up Jon Asgeirs claim.
A picture of one of your favorite Icelandic entrepreneurs Fisy
http://jenni-1001.blog.is/blog/jenni-1001/entry/1054108/
Top guy, just misunderstood.
The payment for the appartment on Gramercy Park Manhattan came from the Royal Bank of Canada, where Jon Asgeir has an account, the amount was 1,3 bn isk.
“What is clear is that most of the money went from the bank and his pockets into pockets of mainly UK based business men that did sell him the overpriced companies he did buy in the UK and other places.”
Virtually all the criminals being investigated are Icelandic. That they bought assets from other nationals is irrelevant and hardly surprising – how else to spend billions of stolen money?
“>The Bjorgolfs and Magnus were employees of the Bravo beer factory, not owners, they were put in charge of the company when the mafia took it over.”
Do you actually have a shred of evidence of this ? I would like to read where you got this — even an interview with any source that claims this.
Instead we hear sources like this one which say some thing far more boring and pedestrian that they did in fact build up the business with hard work and then getting financing to expand.
” The major shareholders of Bravo Holdings were the founding Icelandic management of Bravo International, Bjorgolfsson and Thorsteinsson, and U.S.-based investment fund Capital International. Additional financing came from Russian and European banks”
Björgólfur Thor did ship his bottling plant equipment from a plant in Akureyri in North Iceland.
>Jon Asgeir was a shadow controller of Glitnir bank and ran it (robbed it) trough Larus Welding,
This is far closer to truth of what has been document as happening in SIC black report. But we will see details come out as part of this lawsuit in US after discovery of documents.
>That they bought assets from other nationals is irrelevant and hardly surprising – how else to spend billions of stolen money?
How does that relate to what I did assert that you did not challenge the facts of ?
Fisy did write :
” What is clear is that most of the money went from the bank and his pockets into pockets of mainly UK based business men that did sell him the overpriced companies he did buy in the UK and other places.
I do doubt very much that much of it went into personal assets at all. “
““>The Bjorgolfs and Magnus were employees of the Bravo beer factory, not owners, they were put in charge of the company when the mafia took it over.”
Do you actually have a shred of evidence of this ? I would like to read where you got this — even an interview with any source that claims this.”
Late October 1995 a employee of the Baltic Bottling Plant (BBP)a soft drink factory owned by the British busynesman Bernard J. Lardner and the Icelandic arcitect Ingimar H.Ingimarsson was refused access to his office at the factory in St Petersburg in Russia, the newly hired CEO Björgolfur Thor Björgolfsson told his security guards not to allow the finance manager Þór Kristjansson to enter BBP.
Þór got the explanation that his emploees no longer owned the factory and new owners had taken it over, by then Björgolfur only had a few months left of his job contract with BBP.
Around mid year of 1994 Magnus Þorsteinsson who was CEO had resigned and Björgolfur been hired in his place, his term as CEO was supposed to be terminated in the end of 1995.
http://www.dv.is/frettir/2009/9/25/oryggiverdir-bjorgolfs-lokudu-verksmidjunni/
i dont have time to translate the whole thing, just a few points.
16. september, 1994
Russian/British firm buys the old Sanitas soft drink factory and at the same time assistance in setting up the factory in St Petersburg.
the equipmment was sold to Russia mid year last year,
a few weeks ago Björgolfur was hired as CEO of BBP,
Björgólfur Gudmundsson was one of the those who made the deal between BBP and Gosan/Viking brugg for the sale of the bottling plant,
Björgolfur said BBP was owned by Russian busynesmen who owned the buildings used for this and British investors, no Icelanders owned anything in BBP,
as advisers we have been asked to be involved in other ideas, like setting up a beer factory said Björgolfur Gudmundsson,
Bravo is a trademark of BBP.
http://mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn/grein.html?grein_id=154714
I did some busyness with Magnus þorsteinsson in 1999, when he was supposed to be a billionare, at the end of that deal he was supposed to pay me a small amount of money, after i reminded him a few times he showed up and wrote me a check that bounced for a week until the bank was able to clear it,
i dont think Magnus is all bad, he is just small fish,
the sharks in this fishtank are the Björgolfs, and of course the real money people behind them.
“How does that relate to what I did assert that you did not challenge the facts of ?”
The assets still belong to the Icelandic companies, buy you imply that somehow the money *unfairly* ended up in the hands of London based businessmen. The fact is Icelandic companies bought some poor and over priced assets from shareholders (who could have been any nationality), but being stupid when you buy something doesn’t make the seller responsible or criminal.
How does that relate to what I did assert that you did not challenge the facts of ?
At this stage, it’s all down to what you choose to believe – you’ve presented no facts. I’d put it to you that believing the very best of someone with such a “low standard of commercial morality” goes beyond being naive.
Just because he overpaid on purchase of assets doesn’t mean that he didn’t also accumulate personal wealth. Indeed, it was precisely that overvaluing and non-market value related party transactions that allowed Icelandic businessmen to rob the Icelandic banks. If they also overpaid when purchasing assets outside that closed system, well then that’s just poor business.
Brumley wrote :
” At this stage, it’s all down to what you choose to believe – you’ve presented no facts. I’d put it to you that believing the very best of someone with such a “low standard of commercial morality” goes beyond being naive. ”
Justice Steel did use that term as it is standard wording to use to give the grounds for a Mareva injunction ( worldwide freezing order) he did not make it him self although clearly as you know from my postings over the years here at IceNews that of all I have most respect for judges in legal systems.
( Not procecutors and certainly not lawyers. Although I do respect Eva Joly professional skills. )
I am drawing attention to reality — that most of this money went into buying the assets from people that did want to sell them ( at the over prices).
That was then owned by the companies equity of which has gone as the companies are bancrupted. It is up to those making case in New York court and others to prove the charges.
So when we see all the evidence laying out we will know better what actually happened. If Jón Ásgeir does not present facts in response or plead the Fifth Amendment then we will know who jury will believe.
One thing he need to avoid is crying that it is others persecuting him. Is this Davið again ? I do not think so. If it ever was. The Blue Hand does not reach that far.
What none of this court case can take away from Jón Ásgeir is that he did make his way up by his own boot straps.