The case of the two sisters who were arrested on Tuesday for an attempt to blackmail the prime minister has only gotten stranger as more details have emerged. As the local media outlet Kjarninn noted, the story now looks more like something out of a movie by the American directors Coen brothers, rather than Icelandic reality. The twists and turns of the story, which have run the range from absurd to dark and tragic, certainly look like they could have been lifted from the script of Fargo.
On Tuesday local news site Vísir broke the news that two individuals had been arrested on Friday, after having attempted to blackmail the Prime minister of Iceland. The blackmailers were quickly identified as sisters, Malín Brand and Hlín Einarsdóttir.
Politics, love and charges of corruption
According to the sources of Vísis the sisters had demanded eight million ISK (154.000 EUR/61.500 USD), in exchange for not revealing information about alleged financial connections of Sigmundur Davíð and Björn Ingi Hrafnsson, the owner of online media conglomerate Vefpressan, which operates several news and lifestyle websites, including the lifestyle website Bleikt, where Hlín worked as editor. The sisters alleged they had proof Sigmundur Davíð assisted Björn Ingi secure financing for the acquisition of the newspaper DV.
At the time many questioned Björn Ingi’s motives behind the purchase, suspecting the goal was to silence a newspaper which had been highly critical of the government and the Progressive Party. Björn Ingi has longstanding connections to the party. Björn Ingi and the prime minister have denied the allegations, arguing they are completely unfounded.
Hlín not only edited one of the websites owned by Björn Ingi, as the two were a couple until recently. The two lived together from 2011 until the fall of 2014, or about the same time as Björn Ingi purchased DV. Local celebrity magazine Séð og heyrt recently revealed that Björn Ingi, who will marry his fiancé, the public relations agent Kolfinna Von Arnardótir. Kolfinna Von, who is 27 years old and 15 years younger than Björn Ingi, owns the PR firm Artikolo.
Hand-written extortion letter
In the extortion letter, which was addressed to the prime minister’s wife and was allegedly a partially hand-written and partially a collage of newspaper clippings, the sisters instructed the prime minister to deliver a suitcase with the money to a location in Vallarhraun, a lava field south of Hafnarfjörður municipality in the capital region.
When the sisters arrived to collect the money they were arrested by police.
In an interview with Vísir Malín professed her innocence, arguing she had no involvement in the extortion, other than having driven her sister to pick up the money. “The main point is that I get dragged into events I neither orchestrated nor had any involvement with, other than through family.” She had not expected anyone would take the extortion letter seriously.
Charges of rape and extortion
Malin’s protestations of innocence in the attempt to blackmail the prime minister were cast in a new light yesterday, however, as the sisters were arrested a second time for blackmail and extortion. The arrests came after a man pressed charges against them for having blackmailed him earlier this spring.
The man alleges Malín contacted him, demanding he pay them 700.000 ISK (4.700 EUR/5.400 USD) or the sisters would accuse him publicly of having raped Hlín, alleging they had evidence which would prove his guilt. The man and Hlín allegedly had intimate relations on a Saturday night in April. The man says he thought the matter over for a while before paying up, but not before demanding some sort of assurance the sisters would not try to blackmail him any further. The sisters agreed, and gave the man a kind of “receipt” for the payment of the blackmail. This document is among the evidence in the case.
Serious questions remain unanswered
According to the sources of Vísir the sisters claimed to have proof that the prime minister pulled strings to facilitate a large loan from MP Bank to Vefpressan, owned by Björn Ingi. According to the sources of Vísir Vefpressan did get a 60 million ISK (404.000 EUR/461.500 USD) loan from MP bank in 2013.
The bank has close ties to the prime minister. The CEO of the bank is married to prime minister Sigmundur Davíð’s sister, and the head of asset management at MP Bank is one of his closest economic advisers.
In light of the close connection between the prime minister and persisting questions about how Björn Ingi financed the purchase of DV, Kjarninn pointed out, the two must answer two key questions: What exactly did the sisters threaten to reveal, and how exactly did Björn Ingi finance his purchase of the newspaper DV last fall?
Others have seconded this question, including award winning investigative journalist Jóhann Páll Jóhansson, who worked at DV until it was acquired by Björn Ingi. Jóhann Páll commented on his Facebook page that the allegations made by the sisters were too serious not to be dealt with head on. Claims that the Prime Minster had pulled strings to facilitate a political takeover of a major media outlet could not be left uninvestigated.
The case of the two sisters who were arrested on Tuesday for an attempt to blackmail the prime minister has only gotten stranger as more details have emerged. As the local media outlet Kjarninn noted, the story now looks more like something out of a movie by the American directors Coen brothers, rather than Icelandic reality. The twists and turns of the story, which have run the range from absurd to dark and tragic, certainly look like they could have been lifted from the script of Fargo.
On Tuesday local news site Vísir broke the news that two individuals had been arrested on Friday, after having attempted to blackmail the Prime minister of Iceland. The blackmailers were quickly identified as sisters, Malín Brand and Hlín Einarsdóttir.
Politics, love and charges of corruption
According to the sources of Vísis the sisters had demanded eight million ISK (154.000 EUR/61.500 USD), in exchange for not revealing information about alleged financial connections of Sigmundur Davíð and Björn Ingi Hrafnsson, the owner of online media conglomerate Vefpressan, which operates several news and lifestyle websites, including the lifestyle website Bleikt, where Hlín worked as editor. The sisters alleged they had proof Sigmundur Davíð assisted Björn Ingi secure financing for the acquisition of the newspaper DV.
At the time many questioned Björn Ingi’s motives behind the purchase, suspecting the goal was to silence a newspaper which had been highly critical of the government and the Progressive Party. Björn Ingi has longstanding connections to the party. Björn Ingi and the prime minister have denied the allegations, arguing they are completely unfounded.
Hlín not only edited one of the websites owned by Björn Ingi, as the two were a couple until recently. The two lived together from 2011 until the fall of 2014, or about the same time as Björn Ingi purchased DV. Local celebrity magazine Séð og heyrt recently revealed that Björn Ingi, who will marry his fiancé, the public relations agent Kolfinna Von Arnardótir. Kolfinna Von, who is 27 years old and 15 years younger than Björn Ingi, owns the PR firm Artikolo.
Hand-written extortion letter
In the extortion letter, which was addressed to the prime minister’s wife and was allegedly a partially hand-written and partially a collage of newspaper clippings, the sisters instructed the prime minister to deliver a suitcase with the money to a location in Vallarhraun, a lava field south of Hafnarfjörður municipality in the capital region.
When the sisters arrived to collect the money they were arrested by police.
In an interview with Vísir Malín professed her innocence, arguing she had no involvement in the extortion, other than having driven her sister to pick up the money. “The main point is that I get dragged into events I neither orchestrated nor had any involvement with, other than through family.” She had not expected anyone would take the extortion letter seriously.
Charges of rape and extortion
Malin’s protestations of innocence in the attempt to blackmail the prime minister were cast in a new light yesterday, however, as the sisters were arrested a second time for blackmail and extortion. The arrests came after a man pressed charges against them for having blackmailed him earlier this spring.
The man alleges Malín contacted him, demanding he pay them 700.000 ISK (4.700 EUR/5.400 USD) or the sisters would accuse him publicly of having raped Hlín, alleging they had evidence which would prove his guilt. The man and Hlín allegedly had intimate relations on a Saturday night in April. The man says he thought the matter over for a while before paying up, but not before demanding some sort of assurance the sisters would not try to blackmail him any further. The sisters agreed, and gave the man a kind of “receipt” for the payment of the blackmail. This document is among the evidence in the case.
Serious questions remain unanswered
According to the sources of Vísir the sisters claimed to have proof that the prime minister pulled strings to facilitate a large loan from MP Bank to Vefpressan, owned by Björn Ingi. According to the sources of Vísir Vefpressan did get a 60 million ISK (404.000 EUR/461.500 USD) loan from MP bank in 2013.
The bank has close ties to the prime minister. The CEO of the bank is married to prime minister Sigmundur Davíð’s sister, and the head of asset management at MP Bank is one of his closest economic advisers.
In light of the close connection between the prime minister and persisting questions about how Björn Ingi financed the purchase of DV, Kjarninn pointed out, the two must answer two key questions: What exactly did the sisters threaten to reveal, and how exactly did Björn Ingi finance his purchase of the newspaper DV last fall?
Others have seconded this question, including award winning investigative journalist Jóhann Páll Jóhansson, who worked at DV until it was acquired by Björn Ingi. Jóhann Páll commented on his Facebook page that the allegations made by the sisters were too serious not to be dealt with head on. Claims that the Prime Minster had pulled strings to facilitate a political takeover of a major media outlet could not be left uninvestigated.
