Sigurdur Einarsson, the former head of the board at Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, is today being interviewed by the Special Prosecutor into the banking crisis. He is at the prosecutor’s Reykjavik office along with his lawyer, Gestur Jonsson.
Nearly 20 journalists, photographer and cameramen were waiting for Einarsson upon his arrival and he answered several of their questions on his way in.
He told reporters that he has been preparing himself for the interview carefully and that he does not know how long he will remain in Iceland. When asked if he has a clean conscience, he confirmed that he does, RUV reports. He was also asked why he has chosen to come home now and answer for his alleged wrongdoings. He answered that he has always been ready to come home and that now seemed like a good time to do so.
He added that he was unable to travel internationally while he was still on the INTERPOL wanted list. After he made a deal with the Special Prosecutor to come home for interview, his name was removed from the international police organisation’s list. That happened on Tuesday.
He answered that he has always been ready to come home and that now seemed like a good time to do so.
Iceland Review says the same thing with a little more detail:
Einarsson also stated that it is wrong as has been claimed by the media that he had refused to come in for questioning on earlier occasions—he had always been prepared to return to Iceland, he said.
Yeah, right :) . At least he’s upfront about how honest he’s going to be.
Nothing to fear, Icelander is a community of crooks and thieves.
Please do not do any business in Iceland, they are outright thieves.
Please do not allow them into the EU.
Iceland – what a joke! worse than Mugabe’s cronies in Zimbabwe.
These people are living off my blood and sweat and my dad’s work in a factory for 20 years. The Icelandic banks and the BCP Millenium in Portugal guaranteed the investments in BONDS,
now no no-one takes the blame.
The Icelandic people are lving from my hard work.
@ J
I am Icelandic, and i did not steal anything from you J, nor did anyone i know, out of 320000 Icelanders some 100 are suspected of fraud related to banks or businesses, and none of them live in Iceland, most of them live in UK,
if you believe things are any better in UK for example, then you are naive,
you took a risk and lost, its as simple as that, there is no point crying over it, i lost quite a bit of money myself and my debts doubled, the only way out of a situation like this is to work 24/7 and be sure not to invest in anything other than yourself, by paying debt and saving money in a guaranteed savings account,
if you believe you have been conned, then get a lawyer and file a law suit.
As for the EU, there is not a snowball chance in h*ll of Iceland joining, there will be a referendum, and the chances of the current gov to live long enough to see it materialise is less than zero.
>Iceland – what a joke! worse than Mugabe’s cronies in Zimbabwe.
Untrue.
“the only way out of a situation like this is to work 24/7 and be sure not to invest in anything other than yourself, by paying debt and saving money in a guaranteed savings account”
Axel – that advice could have been an IceSave ad : )
“The only way out of a situation like this is to work 24/7 and be sure not to invest in anything other than yourself, by paying debt and saving money in a guaranteed savings account”
LOL!! You love to be the slave!!
Sheeple!!
>LOL!! You love to be the slave!!
>Sheeple!!
Another opportunity to link to EDA, but this time for IcelandBob’s first comment:
I have never seen a group of people metaphorically take it SO MUCH UP THEIR ARSE as Icelanders and STILL take it as if was a national sport….
http://www.economicdisasterarea.com/index.php/features/its-all-gone-fucking-fuck-in-iceland/
Admittedly, he’s since owned up to being drunk at the time of writing, but stands by the thrust of it (ahem).
I dont understand your logic, according to my understanding, getting out of debt releases me from being a slave to the banks,
to reach that target hard work is required, the opposite, to do nothing, results in bankruptcy.
Here in Iceland, real estate and car sales have gone up because people are trying to convert theyr savings into solid assets because they dont trust the banks, i would not rule out a second crash, and when it comes the banks will not be bailed out.
“you took a risk and lost, its as simple as that, there is no point crying over it, i lost quite a bit of money myself and my debts doubled, ”
Not entirely true is it? Icelanders accounts were protected at the expense of UK and Dutch account holders. Foreigners WERE robbed by every bank account holder in Iceland. So I’d say a very large percent of Icelanders could be classified as guilty.
Proper link Bromley86
I was not talking about icesave or any bank account, but i am sure all account holders would have been welcome to get paid in kronur.
There was a complete finacial meltdown in Iceland, if the banks would have been declared bankrupt and closed for business the entire economy would have crashed.
Not one man on this planet would have been dumb enough to shut down the finacial system of a entire country,
there was no bank run in Iceland, people kept their cool.
No one denies that we should pay the minimum guarantee, as we are partly responsible for the banks, one reason would be selling them to criminals or allowing them to be taken over by criminals,
but obviously a country that has to rely on IMF loans cant really pull a few billion dollars out of its a**,
the TIF had no state guarantee and will not get one, the only assets being offered are the Landsbanki assets who should cover the amount we are responsible for, Iceland, the energy, fishing stocks and everything else related to Iceland will remain the property of the Icelandic people no matter what happens,
the only way to change that is to invade the country.
>No one denies that we should pay the minimum guarantee
Plainly untrue. I’d be surprised if a majority of Icelanders didn’t think that Iceland should not pay the minimum guarantee.
Including, as is obvious from the rest of your post, yourself. You seem to think that the assets of a failed bank that happened to be in Iceland are somehow Icelandic and can be used to cover guarantees that, you admit, Iceland should be responsible for.
Not surprising really, because that fits with the IP government’s attitude :) .
To Peter – London/Krakow:
You seem to be forgetting the fact (or maybe just ignoring) that the accounts domiciled in Iceland, where to the largest extend in Icelandic kronas, while the Icesave accounts where all in Euros and Pounds.
What the Icelandic government did, by passing the emergency laws in October 2008, was to “guarantee” all accounts domiciled in Iceland, but at the same time put in restrictions on how much could be withdrawn. ALL accounts, whether they were in Icelandic kronas or other currencies, could ONLY be withdrawn in ICELANDIC kronas, in limited amounts. These currency restrictions are still in force today and it looks like they will continue into the foreseeable future.
As mentioned before, if the foreign depositors with Icesave would have liked to be “guaranteed” (NOT PAID) in Icelandic kronas, I am sure we would have been glad to accommodate them.
Remember also, that the Icelandic krona is now worth about half of what it was before the crash, measured in EUROS. That means EVERY deposit in Iceland is worth only about half of what it was before.
If the currency restrictions are lifted sometime in the future, it is very likely that the Icelandic krona will drop even further, maybe even considerably. Furthermore, if Iceland suffers at some point sovereign default (still a very real possibility), the Icelandic krona will likely become worthless and the depositors will loose everything.
Refinancing the central bank and the “new” banks was VERY expensive for the Icelandic government. According to the latest figures for fiscal year 2009, the total government revenues were 614B ISK, while total expenditures were 763B ISK, a deficit of a whopping 149B ISK (24%). Of this, the yearly interest payments alone on the total debt (1794B ISK mainly due to the crash), were about 99B ISK.
http://www.hagstofan.is/Pages/95?NewsID=4620
Talking about foreigners being robbed by every bank account holder in Iceland is a complete nonsense. It were the “old” Icelandic banks that lost all the money, and the Icelandic depositors were just as much victims of this as the foreign depositors.
In fact most Icelandic depositors would probably gladly trade places with their foreign counterparts, as they were at least guaranteed by their own respective governments in a currency that is still worth something.
Bromley86 says “You seem to think that the assets of a failed bank that happened to be in Iceland are somehow Icelandic and can be used to cover guarantees that, you admit, Iceland should be responsible for.”
————
Sounds rational to me, In this case of Landsbanki operations in the UK. that the realised assets of a failed bank first go to pay the deposit liabilities. Is this not a commonly understood or accepted procedure?
‘the order of priority for distribution of amounts realized from the liquidation or other resolution of an insured depository institution to pay claims. Under the statutory order of priority, administrative expenses and deposit liabilities must be paid in full before any distribution may be made to general unsecured creditors or any lower priority claims’.
Here is the original report from Hagstofan, which includes some of the summaries in English:
https://hagstofa.is/lisalib/getfile.aspx?ItemID=11413
Peter – London/Krakow says:
September 12, 2010 at 5:13 pm
“Not entirely true is it? Icelanders accounts were protected at the expense of UK and Dutch account holders. Foreigners WERE robbed by every bank account holder in Iceland. So I’d say a very large percent of Icelanders could be classified as guilty.”
————————————————
Flogging the dead horse again with this xenophobic nonsense, unconnected to reality or rationality.
You’d think with all your repetition, the needle would have drilled a hole right through that record years ago.
>Sounds rational to me
That’s the problem, it isn’t. That money is not Icelandic and cannot be used by the govenment to cover a “guarantee”. Sure, it can and should be used to “repay”, but that’s a different matter.
“As mentioned before, if the foreign depositors with Icesave would have liked to be “guaranteed” (NOT PAID) in Icelandic kronas, I am sure we would have been glad to accommodate them. ”
Besides the fact that the option has NEVER been offer by Iceland there is the effect the the effect of having 5billion euro’s withdraw/under threat of withdrawal would have on iceland and the value of the Krona. It would have been utterly impossible to do this. Also the guarantee was specified in EURO’s and was supposed to be paid within 6months.
>>Flogging the dead horse again with this xenophobic nonsense, unconnected to reality or rationality.
I’m turning Icelandic, aren’t I?
>>No one denies that we should pay the minimum guarantee
>Plainly untrue. I’d be surprised if a majority of Icelanders didn’t think that Iceland should not pay the minimum guarantee.
And, on cue, Grimsson makes my point for me:
http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=367567
Bromley86 says:
September 13, 2010 at 4:01 pm
>Sounds rational to me
“That’s the problem, it isn’t. That money is not Icelandic and cannot be used by the govenment to cover a “guarantee”. Sure, it can and should be used to “repay”, but that’s a different matter.”
One of the big problems is that the rational solution, namely – that the failed Bank assets in the UK are used to repay priority depositers and the Iceland State ensures this process – is being hidden behind a ‘can’t do that one Guv’ ‘that would be too socialist’ ‘we are going to try and use the law to milk the assets for other purposes’.
@Knowless. If I understand you correctly, you’re talking about using illiquid assets of the company to bail the Icelandic government out of its responsibility.
If Iceland “ensures the process”, then Iceland has to borrow the money to bridge the gap between when the payout needs to be made (~6 months) and the time when the assets are sold. But as that’s the Icesave mess, I take it that you’re referring to the assets being sold now to repay the priority creditors? That would effectively be stealing from creditors so that the Icelandic government doesn’t have to pay the financing cost.
Knowless has attacked me, and others, in the past as being “xenophobic” when in fact those attacked have appeared to me to have international backgrounds. He has repeated this type of attack against Peter London/Krakow whose very name suggests a multicultural approach which Knowless seems unable to appreciate.
It would be nice if this trolling could stop. Ideally this would be for Knowless to self-censor himself – he might care to stop and think about how he looks to others.
For reference here is a list of the postings where he has attacked someone for being xenophobic:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/05/27/efta-iceland-must-pay-icesave/
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/03/09/no-to-icesave-does-not-damage-icelands-credit-rating/
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/03/03/icesave-referendum-a-waste-of-money-or-a-necessary-barometer-of-opinion/
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/02/22/new-icesave-offer-%e2%80%9cnot-acceptable%e2%80%9d/
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/28/iceland-named-greenest-country-in-the-world/#comments
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/07/the-emergence-of-icesave-empathy-for-iceland-in-uk-media/
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/10/31/british-offer-to-guarantee-icesave-declined-by-iceland-central-bank/
Bromley86 says:
September 14, 2010 at 3:56 pm
“@Knowless. If I understand you correctly, you’re talking about using illiquid assets of the company to bail the Icelandic government out of its responsibility.
If Iceland “ensures the process”, then Iceland has to borrow the money to bridge the gap between when the payout needs to be made (~6 months) and the time when the assets are sold. But as that’s the Icesave mess, I take it that you’re referring to the assets being sold now to repay the priority creditors? That would effectively be stealing from creditors so that the Icelandic government doesn’t have to pay the financing cost.”
To me, you appear to be complicating a rational approach to a resolution which is supported by already accepted and established procedures on dealing with the assets of a failed bank and using those assets to compensate priority depositers.
I read today that something like this is somewhere on the grapevine :)
http://file.wikileaks.org/file/icesave2.pdf
Mike (UK Nordic analyst) says:
September 14, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Knowless has attacked me, and others, in the past as being “xenophobic” when in fact those attacked have appeared to me to have international backgrounds. He has repeated this type of attack against Peter London/Krakow whose very name suggests a multicultural approach which Knowless seems unable to appreciate.
It would be nice if this trolling could stop. Ideally this would be for Knowless to self-censor himself – he might care to stop and think about how he looks to others.
————————–
I do remember calling you xenophobic for some swarmy remarks you made against Icelanders in general. Not only was the remark based on anecdote but it was applied to Icelanders in general. That defines xenophobia. Do you deny that you have an overly condescending attitude towards Icelanders and Icelandic society. I am not Icelandic and would consider that I balance my criticism of iceland society with objectivity and also relate that to society in general in the West
Here in this thread, Peter indulges in his well favoured approach of generalising his negative perceptions about Icelanders, towards a large % Icelanders as being crooks. That is also xenophobia. Rational analysis is being relegated behind fancy soundbites of applied prejudice.
Sorry Bromley, I gave the wrong link, I thought I was linking to an article I read on Vidskiptabladid yesterday,
Read but not fully understood, if you know what I mean.
“Rational analysis is being relegated behind fancy soundbites of applied prejudice.”
What you define as rational is illegal, giving preferential treatment to Icelanders at the expense of overseas depositors is against EU law. The only nationality and Government who agrees with Iceland’s attitude is Icelandic.
Icelanders were given the opportunity and voted against repaying Icesave. Don’t say anything like ‘we pay our debts’ becuase its over two years now and every offer has been rejected by Iceland. Your own banking report painted a picture of a country saturated in financial and political corruption. For such a a tiny population that’s a lot of dirt to stick to a few people.
Its perfectly rational to come to the conclusion that a nation that configures it laws to allow it it obtain money by deception and makes promises that it has no intention of every upholding, (even after changing government) is fundamentally crooked.
“Its perfectly rational to come to the conclusion that a nation that configures it laws to allow it it obtain money by deception and makes promises that it has no intention of every upholding, (even after changing government) is fundamentally crooked.”
The Icelandic nation never saw a nickle of that privately owned Landsbanki/icesave money, if you wonder where it is you might want to ask Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson where he got the money he is building a data center in Iceland for, a project currently on ice.
Regarding corruption, it is just as bad in any Western socitey, no matter where you look, we all use the same system, it is now being changed in Iceland, the elite is loosing its grip on politics and may not even survive, as many of them may end up behind bars.
The special prosecutors office has 80 people investigating the bank collapse and related cases, the FSA has 17 people,
we will start to see some results soon.
If you want to look for the money that went to Money Heaven :) this website shows how its all connected, but of course hidden offshore companies are still missing.
http://www.litlaisland.net/corruption/draw/19/2/
http://www.litlaisland.net/
politicians, gangsters and crocked politicians on this website, but in Icelandic
http://www.hvitbok.vg/
“The Icelandic nation never saw a nickle of that privately owned Landsbanki/icesave money”
Axel, your statement is incorrect. Icesave money was indeeed taken out of the UK and Holland, placed into the balance sheet of Landsbanki and then lent on to Icelanders for consumer purchases. The wider point is that the all three banks acted as a conduit for money from abroad into the pockets of ordinary Icelanders.
There are three basic ways to illustrate the truth of that statement.
First, you can look at the balance of payments for the relevant “boom” period. See the Sedlabanki report for November 2008.
(www.sedlabanki.is/lisalib/getfile.aspx?itemid=6670). Charts VII-1 and VII-3 give an excellent view of the “merchandise” boom. The subsequent interest payments needed to pay off those purchases is shown in the large “red” income balance that grows out of control after the purchases have been made.
Second, you can see the growth in personal consumption in the same report (Chart IV-4). In 2000-1 there was a slight contraction in personal consumption but from that point onwards the entire population went on a real “bender”. In 2005-6 alone the growth in personal consumption hit a truly staggering 25%. 2007 showed another enormous leap in personal expenditure: 15% that year. No other nation has ever come close to that sort of “consumer orgy”.
Thirdly, one just had to use one’s eyes. Reykjavik became awash with high-value consumer goods between 2003-8.
Far from “not seeing a nickel” (sic) the ordinary Icelander saw rather a lot of this money.
Where did it come from?
Well either Icelanders collectively had become the most productive and efficient people on the planet – basically doubling their output in an incredibly short period. But the exports for the relevant period shows no such expansion in productive output. So the money didn’t come from within the country, thus it must have been routed from outside. So the population did see rather a lot of the money from overseas.
This is the origin of the huge debts that are plaguing the population at the moment (another peice of evidence that ordinary Icelanders did indeed see a “nickle” of this money). The origin of this money (that which is now consumer debt in Iceland) is why the government is finding it almost impossible to write off, or reduce those debts (see the new arrangement for the foreign currency loans) – the money is owed to outside agencies not other Icelanders. Basically the government does not have the power to forgive those debts – the only option open to it would be to socialise the debts, but external countries (UK, Faroes, Norway, China, Holland, EU and the IMF etc) that have supplied money to keep the population from starving (and I am not exaggerating) have said that the money cannot be used to forgive debts within Iceland itself.
It is annoying to see this repetition that “Ordinary Icelanders didn’t benefit” – the Sedlabanki reports show exactly the opposite.