The former CEO and the former chairman of the failed bank Kaupthing have requested a reopening of their cases on the grounds that one of Iceland’s Supreme Court judges was unfit to rule when the court handed them heavy jail sentences earlier this year.
Former CEO Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson received a five-and-a-half year sentence, which is the heaviest sentence for financial fraud in Iceland’s history, and former chairman, Sigurður Einarsson received a four-year sentence.
Previously investor Ólafur Ólafsson, who was a leading shareholder in Kaupthing, had requested a reopening of his case on the grounds that the Supreme Court had handled some evidence wrongly. Ólafur maintains that he is a victim of a misidentification in a key testimony. The office of the Special Prosecutor has dismissed his claim.
Ólafur received a four-year jail sentence. All were sentenced by the Supreme Court to jail for their role in a market manipulation of share prices in Kaupthing bank in 2008.
According to the new claim by the former CEO and the former chairman, Supreme Court judge Árni Kolbeinsson was unfit because his son, Kolbeinn Árnason, was working for Kaupthing’s winding up committee from 2008 to 2013. Both also claim that the Supreme Court did wrongly evaluate some evidence.
The three men were convicted for conspiring to try to manipulate Kaupthing’s share price by claiming that sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa al-Thani, a Qatar royal, had risked his own money by buying a 5% stake in the bank for 155 million UK pounds in September, only weeks before the bank collapsed in October 2008. Later it surfaced that it was the bank itself that was indirectly buying the shares.
The fourth man sentenced in this case, Magnús Guðmundsson, former CEO of the bank’s Luxembourg branch, has not requested his case to be reopened.
Kaupthing was one of Iceland’s big three banks that crashed in the autumn of 2008. The other two were Glitnir and Landsbankinn. All three are still in winding-up proceedings.
Read more: Seven former Kaupthing bankers sentenced for market manipulation
It was weekly financial newspaper Viðskiptablaðið, that broke this story earlier today.
The former CEO and the former chairman of the failed bank Kaupthing have requested a reopening of their cases on the grounds that one of Iceland’s Supreme Court judges was unfit to rule when the court handed them heavy jail sentences earlier this year.
Former CEO Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson received a five-and-a-half year sentence, which is the heaviest sentence for financial fraud in Iceland’s history, and former chairman, Sigurður Einarsson received a four-year sentence.
Previously investor Ólafur Ólafsson, who was a leading shareholder in Kaupthing, had requested a reopening of his case on the grounds that the Supreme Court had handled some evidence wrongly. Ólafur maintains that he is a victim of a misidentification in a key testimony. The office of the Special Prosecutor has dismissed his claim.
Ólafur received a four-year jail sentence. All were sentenced by the Supreme Court to jail for their role in a market manipulation of share prices in Kaupthing bank in 2008.
According to the new claim by the former CEO and the former chairman, Supreme Court judge Árni Kolbeinsson was unfit because his son, Kolbeinn Árnason, was working for Kaupthing’s winding up committee from 2008 to 2013. Both also claim that the Supreme Court did wrongly evaluate some evidence.
The three men were convicted for conspiring to try to manipulate Kaupthing’s share price by claiming that sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa al-Thani, a Qatar royal, had risked his own money by buying a 5% stake in the bank for 155 million UK pounds in September, only weeks before the bank collapsed in October 2008. Later it surfaced that it was the bank itself that was indirectly buying the shares.
The fourth man sentenced in this case, Magnús Guðmundsson, former CEO of the bank’s Luxembourg branch, has not requested his case to be reopened.
Kaupthing was one of Iceland’s big three banks that crashed in the autumn of 2008. The other two were Glitnir and Landsbankinn. All three are still in winding-up proceedings.
Read more: Seven former Kaupthing bankers sentenced for market manipulation
It was weekly financial newspaper Viðskiptablaðið, that broke this story earlier today.
