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Posts Tagged ‘10 Months’

Iceland banking crash report made public

Monday, April 12th, 2010

The Icelandic parliament’s long-delayed report into the collapse of the main banks has now been released to the public.

Sections of the report can already be read in English here.

A press conference is being held by the report’s authors and the leaders of the main political parties will comment of their initial reactions this afternoon.

Some early highlights from the report are that GBP 200 million was taken from Icesave in the UK to Iceland in the last weekend of March 2008 with the knowledge of the government and central bank. All the banks shorted the Icelandic krona in order to maximise their own profits. The banks loaned money to their owners with no security. Government since the crash is described by the report as lacklustre.

Teenage pimp convicted in Sweden

Friday, January 8th, 2010

eye In what is believed to be the youngest case of conviction for aggravated pimping, a girl aged just 17 has been sentenced for her role in the sale of the sexual services of a disabled 14-year-old girl. The alleged mastermind of the operation, a 20-year-old man, was acquitted of all charges.

The exploitation of the disabled teenager also saw a further three teenage women, all aged 18 and 19 convicted, reports The Local. One of the women—aged 19—has been sentenced to 180 hours of community service while on probation in lieu of a jail term of eight months. The other 19-year-old was also sentenced to 200 hours of service but was acquitted of pimping charges, instead being found guilty of unlawful deprivation of the disable girl’s liberty. The youngest of the trio was found guilty of theft, unlawful coercion and unlawful deprivation of liberty and sentenced to 180 hours of service.

This leaves the 17-year-old as the sole suspect to be found guilty of the charges of aggravated pimping in a bizarre set-up which has appalled local prosecutors. “I have never heard of anything like this before,” said prosecutor Ulrika Rogland in September when the teen was first remanded into custody. The girl admitted to allegations that she had organised for men to have sexual intercourse with the disabled girl in exchange for monetary payment between August and December 2008. The court also heard that the disabled victim was frequently required to have intercourse with two men at a time.

Police investigations discovered that the young girl had a weekly customer base of five men who paid upwards of SEK 500 (USD 70) for each appointment, most of which went to the organising gang.

The 17-year-old has been sentenced to juvenile detention for 10 months.

Tags: 10 Months, 19 Year Old, Coercion, Customer Base, Eight Months, Five Men, Hours Of Service, Jail Term, Juvenile Detention, Mastermind, Monetary Payment, Old Girl, Police Investigations, Sexual Intercourse, Sexual Services, Sole Suspect, Teenage Women, Time Police, Ulrika, Unlawful Deprivation Of Liberty
Posted in Iceland | No Comments »

Swedish writer confirms relationship with KGB

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

KGB Jan Guillou, the famous Swedish author and journalist, is facing new claims of aiding the KGB in the 1960s. Guillou has claimed that he was pursuing journalistic investigations into the role of the secret service in Sweden.

The Swedish newspaper Expressen disclosed documentation that was obtained from Sapo, the Swedish intelligence agency, which discussed aspects of the relationship between Guillou and the KGB. The new information revolves around the KGB’s primary contact in Stockholm Jevgenij Ivanovitj Gergel.

As reported in The Local, a colleague of Guillou’s made a witness statement that expressed concern about the writer’s interactions with the KGB. The statement by the fellow journalist also makes reference to the American Embassy in Stockholm and an alleged assignment involving the theft of an internal telephone directory.

Guillou told the newspaper that he had met Gergel in Stockholm in 1967 during a reception at the Soviet Embassy. ”We never did anything other than talk politics,” Guillou stated, claiming that he did not make any journalistic revelations from the meetings.

Guillou has repeatedly denied allegations of spying for the KGB but has admitted that he was paid by the agency to undertake research on Swedish politics. Guillou maintains that his role was always of a professional nature. ”It was just a few non-events and it is not a crime to meet foreign intelligence services,” he said.

Guillou’s relationship with the KGB lasted until he began to publish articles about the existence of the secret military service in Sweden or Informationsbyran (IB) in which Guillou and Peter Bratt claimed the IB was spying on citizens suspected of being internal security risks. The articles caused a major political scandal for which Guillou was jailed for espionage for 10 months. He was never indicted on any relations to the KGB.

Tags: 10 Months, American Embassy, Espionage, Fellow Journalist, Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Services, Internal Security, Internal Telephone, Jan Guillou, Kgb, Peter Bratt, Political Scandal, Professional Nature, Secret Service, Security Risks, Soviet Embassy, Swedish Author, Swedish Politics, Swedish Writer, Witness Statement
Posted in Iceland | No Comments »

Too proud for help, not anymore

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

The people of Iceland are being punished for the misbehavior of the countries financial elite

This might come as an surprise to some, Iceland had its share of financial elites, I say had because they are all gone now. Most of them are running away as fast as they can, trying to move all valuables to tax-havens before the government puts a freeze on there assets. Yes, the government of Iceland has yet to freeze any assets since the banking crisis hit almost 10 months ago.

The world never stops to let me down, everything is falling apart, there is no trust left anywhere. Even the Social Democrats who came into power only a few months ago, when Iceland elected its first pure left government, have done nothing but let us down. From a fresh breeze to a rotten old smell of disgusting politics, only a few days are needed to turn a group of decent parliamentarians into pale blood sucking pack of scumbags.

Last summer, If anyone had asked my if Iceland needed help I would have laughed in their face. Help? We don’t need anyone, we have everything right here and more. The investigations into the collapse is going slowly, but these things are complicated, that’s why we have imported help from Norway in the form of Eva Joly. Right now, that’s all the hope I have left in the system, it has come down to a single person almost. If Eva Joly can’t get those bankers, no one can.

We can’t wait for the EU membership, that thing takes years, and why should Iceland join the EU anyway? The other Scandinavian countries have turned there back on us. No help from there, unless we agree to pay billions for the Icesave accounts. Its a fact, the regular Joe’s of Iceland had no clue how the Icelandic banks could offer better interest rates then Deutsche bank. We can’t pay anyway, its just too much for tiny Iceland. The Icelandic Economic Miracle was all a big shame, we know that now, sorry. Please don’t let us pay for the sins of a handful of bankers. They had us for fools.

- Andri Sigurðsson

Tags: 10 Months, Banking Crisis, Billions, Clue, Collapse, Deutsche Bank, Economic Miracle, Elites, Financial Elite, Fools, Fresh Breeze, Government Of Iceland, Handful, Icesave, Misbehavior, Parliamentarians, People Of Iceland, Scandinavian Countries, Tax Havens, Valuables
Posted in Iceland, Market, News, Politics | No Comments »

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