Through elaborate twists and turns Catharine Zeta-Jones had to risk her life in a break in to get her hands on the jewels she coveted in Entrapment.
But if you happen to own or control a business which has been bankrupted in Iceland in the last couple of years, the way back to 2007 is made easy by the country’s banks, accountants and business laws. Through those channels, twisting and turning is made strikingly less hazardous.
DV reports that the owner of Leonard, one of Iceland’s most prestigious stores handling jewellery and fine watches transferred the operations onto a new social security number and signed an agreement with his wife that she would assume control of the new company. Last week he was declared bankrupt himself. But through this manoeuvre the couple has managed to get rid of the old debts but still keep the store.
This is not an exceptional case, but a blueprint for why so many of the most reckless business people of the last decade are still heading the companies they’ve run into the ground.
This is why Geir Haarde and David Oddson used to say their aim was for Iceland to become a “business friendly” country.
I for one don’t understand why business schools bother with explaining basic rules in finance and economics to their students anymore. Why are they still teaching that “those who assume the greatest risks also should reap the greatest rewards because they can also incur the greatest losses”?
Why don’t they just teach students how to create two business entities and shove debts into one and assets into the other? You keep your assets and the debts fly off to “money heaven”.
Wasn’t that also how IceSave was supposed to work for Landsbankinn’s owners and management team?
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Debts in the bankrupt estates of two companies owned by the lawyer Bjorn Thorri Viktorsson in Reykjavik amount to ISK 140 million (over USD 1 million). The companies changed name shortly before going bankrupt.