Iceland finds all guilty in banker market-abuse case

Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, Ingólfur Helgason and Sigurður Einarsson.

Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, Ingólfur Helgason and Sigurður Einarsson. Photo: Iceland Monitor

Iceland’s Supreme Court has return a guilty verdict for all nine defendants in the Kaupþing market manipulation case, the court trial for which began in April 2015.

Back in June last year, the Reykjavik District Court found seven of the nine defendants guilty, acquitting two .

Birn­ir Sær Björns­son, Ein­ar Pálmi Sig­munds­son and Pét­ur Krist­inn Guðmars­son.

Birn­ir Sær Björns­son, Ein­ar Pálmi Sig­munds­son and Pét­ur Krist­inn Guðmars­son. Photo: Iceland Monitor

By fully financing share purchases with no other surety than the shares themselves, the bankers were accused of giving a false and misleading impression of demand for Kaupþingi shares by means of deception and pretence.

The Supreme Court has now overturned the acquittals, finding Björk Þórarinsdóttir (credit representative at Kaupþing) and Magnús Guðmundsson (former CEO of Kaupthing Luxembourg) also guilty alongside the other seven.

Magnús Guðmundsson, Bjarki Diego and Björk Þórarinsdóttir.

Magnús Guðmundsson, Bjarki Diego and Björk Þórarinsdóttir. Photo: Iceland Monitor

No punishment has been handed out to Þórarinsdóttir and Guðmundsson, however.

In addition, Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, former Director of the bank, who had initially received no further penalty, having previously been sentenced in the ‘ Al-Thani affair ’, has now been given a sixth-month extension to his prison sentence.

Weather

Partly cloudy

Today

0 °C

Clear sky

Later today

2 °C

Clear sky

Tomorrow

3 °C