The value of Icelandic assets in the tax havens of Tortola, Cyprus, the Isles of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the Cayman Islands increased by 40 percent last year while, overall, the value of Icelandic assets abroad deteriorated.
Posts Tagged ‘Tax Havens’
Icelandic Assets in Tax Havens Grow by 40 Percent
Thursday, September 10th, 2009Owners of 70 Icelandic Offshore Companies Unknown
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
The Icelandic banks claim that they don’t have the information on the identity of the owners of 70 offshore companies that the banks founded themselves. The Icelandic banks founded approximately 250 companies in tax havens.
The Viking-Raiders Strike Back
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Bjorgolfur Thor has threatened to sue Channel 2 because of the newsstory about him moving money to tax-havens in the wake of the economic crash.
The channel’s news-manager has said they don’t have anything in writing as proof but is willing to stake the words of his unnamed source against the “good name” of Bjorgolfur.
And Jon Asgeir Johannesson has told of an attempt by a lawyer to blackmail him and threats made by a drunk journalist at Morgunbladid. DV indicates that the drunk journalist is Independent Party barking dog, Agnes Bragadottir.
Oh, the stench of a bloody battlefield!
This seems like a welcome change from when the two moguls owned and controlled the media.
Fraudsters in Isolation – Arrests Finally Made In Iceland
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009This should be big news. Today’s Frettabladid reports the following:
“Two young men, born in 1989 and 1990 who are suspected of massive financial fraud are being kept in isolation under arrest because of the seriousness of their case. This is revealed in the courts’ verdict at their hearing.
The men are believed to have drawn at least 50 million out of two limited companies and the State Housing Fund, by taking over the management of the companies amongst other things. As Frettabladid has reported before, more individuals are believed to play a role in the case. At the point of writing last night, more arrests had not been made.”
Now what did Eva Joly say about the judicial system of the west being designed to close up small time crooks and protect the largest ones?
The reporter and the court probably ain’t kidding either. How absurd is this the day after the revelations that the largest owners and top management of the Icelandic banks had taken their money away from the banks as they collapsed and hidden them in tax havens around the world?
How ridiculous does “the seriousness of their case” sound when it is clear that Landsbankinn’s owners lent themselves 114% of its equity when they were allowed only 25%?
How stupid is their isolation in comparison with Olafur Olafsson’s top man, Arni Tomasson sitting on the solvency board of Glitnir?
How mind-boggling is the case in comparison with Glitnir’s and Kaupthing’s market manipulation through Stim ehf. and the Al-Thani business?
How Jon Asgeir Johannesson and those who took over the Savings & Loans of Hafnarfjordur and milked its owners’ equity dry must smile onboard their yachts when they read about those that don’t get away?
Should a news report like that, made in context with what is taking place in society, make you laugh or cry?
The Rats Who Jumped Ship
Monday, July 27th, 2009Every day brings a new queasy revelation in the country which the Germans now call Crisisland. Today I met someone who is leaving the country, relieved to get away from all the negativity that has infiltrated every thread of society. Another friend said he foresaw the future in the same way. Occasionally you will find a happy camper who is trying to keep head above water but the mood mostly turns grim once people get past the how are you’s.
Tonight Channel 2 and the State Broadcasting Channel reported that according to secret reports from Ernst & Young and information from the collapsed banks, billions were transferred to tax-havens such as Tortola, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands by top management and owners of the doomed banks as they were being taken over by the state. As the Icelandic people stare the abyss of IceSave in the eye, it is infuriating to hear that Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson, Magnus Thorsteinsson and Karl Wernersson transferred billions of ISK away from the storm and into new currencies and made even more once the ISK went into free-fall. Apparantly they used Straumur Burdaras bank to create hundreds of new accounts abroad for several top customers. This began on the same day the state declared it would take over 75% in Glitnir.
And Glitnir’s top brass, Bjarni Armannsson, Larus Welding and Einar Sveinsson were active transferring their own money away from the bank in September. Larus Welding removed 318 million ISK from his account and then a transfer abroad was made in his wife’s name for 325 million ISK. Bjarni Armannsson, moved 262 million ISK in seperate transfers into funds and to Nordea Bank in Norway. Einar Sveinsson transferred 170 million ISK to Norway days before the bank was nationalized.
So the rats jumped ship like everyone suspected and we can expect this list to grow longer day by day. But the thought of these people “rebuilding” Iceland in the future might be just enough to convince more and more people to leave their country behind.
Too proud for help, not anymore
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009The 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
Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank talking tough over debtors
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
“The Kaupthing Resolution Committee will chase the bank’s money wherever we have to, whether it has gone to offshore companies or not. It makes no difference who is holding the funds,” Says Johannes Runar Johannsson, a Supreme Court barrister and member of the Kaupthing Resolution Committee.
His comments follow revelations that the Bank is chasing British businessman Robert Tchenguiz through the British courts, claiming GBP 180 million it believes Tchenguiz withheld following the sale of Somerfield supermarkets.
The Bank is pursuing its former biggest customer through courts in London and Reykjavik with regard to funds held in the British Virgin Islands.
On a related topic, British Virgin Islands officials yesterday signed a co-operation pact with the Nordic countries at Iceland’s embassy in Copenhagen. A likely similar agreement with France and New Zealand could lead to the Islands being taken off the ‘grey list’ of un-cooperative tax havens.