Iceland

Iceland Just Jailed Dozens of Corrupt Bankers, US Does Opposite

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A general view shows the city of Reykjavik seen from Hallgrimskirkja church (Reuters/Stoyan Nenov)

Jay Syrmopoulos – In stark contrast to the record low number of prosecutions of CEO’s and high-level financial executives in the U.S., Iceland has just sentenced 26 bankers to a combined 74 years in prison.

The majority of those convicted have been sentenced to prison terms of two to five years. The maximum penalty in Iceland for financial crimes is six years, although hearings are currently underway to consider extending the maximum beyond six years.

The prosecutions are the result of Iceland’s banksters manipulating the Icelandic financial markets after Iceland deregulated their finance sector in 2001. Eventually, an accumulation of foreign debt resulted in a meltdown of the entire banking sector in 2008.

According to Iceland Magazine:

In two separate rulings last week, the Supreme Court of Iceland and the Reykjavík District Court sentenced three top managers of Landsbankinn and two top managers of Kaupþing, along with one prominent investor, to prison for crimes committed in the lead-up to the financial collapse of 2008. With these rulings the number of bankers and financiers who have been sentenced to prison for crimes relating to the financial collapse has reached 26, and a combined prison time of 74 years. Continue reading →

Iceland Recovering Fastest In Europe After Jailing Bankers Instead Of Bailing Them Out

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Claire Bernish – After Iceland suffered a heavy hit in the 2008-2009 financial crisis, which famously resulted in convictions and jail terms for a number of top banking executives, the IMF now says the country has managed to achieve economic recovery—“without compromising its welfare model,” which includes universal healthcare and education.

icelandIn fact, Iceland is on track to become the first European country that suffered in the financial meltdown to “surpass its pre-crisis peak of economic output”—essentially proving to the U.S. that bailing out “too big to fail” banks wasn’t the way to go.

Iceland is beautifully, yet unfortunately, unique in how it chose to handle the disaster. It simply let the banks fail, which resulted in defaults totaling $85 billion—lending ample justification for the prosecution and conviction of bank executives for various fraud-related charges. The decision seemed shocking at the time, but the gamble has obviously paid off. Choosing a different route, the U.S. bailed out the banks and let executives off the hook by levying fines that ultimately ended up being paid by the corporations—meaning the executives ostensibly responsible for the mess got off scot-free.

“Why should we have a part of our society that is not being policed or without responsibility?” special prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said after Iceland’s Supreme Court upheld the convictions for three bankers—and sentenced them to between four and five and a half years each. “It is dangerous that someone is too big to investigate—it gives a sense there is a safe haven.”

Hauksson, a police officer from a small fishing village, ended up taking the role of special prosecutor after being urged to do so when the first announcement to fill the position drew no applicants. The Icelandic Parliament even aided the prosecution’s effort by loosening secrecy laws to allow investigation without the hindrance of requiring court orders. Continue reading →

Iceland Considers Stripping Power To Create Currency From Banks

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Alex Newman –  Still reeling from the economic catastrophe that struck in 2008, Iceland and its Parliament are debating a plan that would dramatically restructure the tiny nation’s monetary system by stripping commercial banks of the legal ability to create currency out of thin air — and handing that power exclusively to politicians and central bankers under what is being labelled a “sovereign money” system. The proposal to quash private bankers’ fractional-reserve system, where banks literally bring new currency into existence with government permission and then charge interest on it, is already making major waves. It is being described by analysts as everything from “radical” and “revolutionary” to a prescription for “an almost Soviet-style banking system.” Either way, the implications of the debate are enormous.

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Frosti Sigurjonsson – Chairman, Parliament’s Committee for Economic Affairs and Trade

In a parliamentary report released on March 31, commissioned by the prime minister about the monetary idea, Chairman Frosti Sigurjonsson on Parliament’s Committee for Economic Affairs and Trade suggested that a “fundamental reform” of Iceland’s monetary system was needed. “Iceland, being a sovereign state with an independent currency, is free to abandon the present unstable fractional reserves system and implement a better monetary system,” explained MP Sigurjonsson, who authored the report. “Such an initiative must however rest on further study of the alternatives and a widespread consensus on the urgency for reform.”

The explosive 110-page report, entitled “Monetary Reform: A Better Monetary System for Iceland,” offers a great deal of educational material on the inherent flaws of the current fractional-reserve banking system. In essence, with full government backing, the existing monetary system literally allows commercial banks to create fiat currency out of nothing, based on the amount of deposits held by the commercial bank. The banks then charge customers interest payments on the currency that they created out of nothing. Countless analysts have blasted the existing system as a scam and a fraud that serves mostly to loot the public. Continue reading →

The Real Purpose Of The IMF

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“What the IMF does is somewhat similar to a thug loan shark. The loan shark lends money to people who can’t afford to borrow so that the borrower ends up having to not eat to make the payments or face having broken legs.” L Eastwood

IMF_SausageMakingGlobalEconomyTo much trumpeting the IMF have kindly agreed to help out desperate and war torn Ukraine. How wonderful they are we are all meant to think, but the truth couldn’t be more opposite.

The International Monetary Fund was set up in 1945, describing itself as an “organization of 188 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.”

This all sounds very laudable, but in reality the IMF has a very different purpose from that which is stated. If you look at the history of the IMF’s intervention in countries around the world you will see a trail of disaster and looting that repeats time and time again wherever they go.

The many countries that are involved are supposed to have some influence but this is proportional to their financial clout, which in truth means that the USA has most of the control of what happens and many countries have effectively no say at all.

My opinion of the IMF, concurs with that of John Perkins, author of ‘Confessions Of An Economic Hitman’, his views being that of an insider in the system and mine merely as an observer. He succinctly points out that major western nations use financial warfare to get what they want and gain influence over other countries – the IMF being one of the tools with which they do this. Continue reading →

Iceland’s Jailed Bankers ‘A Model’ For Dealing With ‘Financial Terrorists’

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RT  December 14 2013

Reuters / Bob Strong
Reuters / Bob Strong

By jailing four top officers of Iceland’s failed Kaupthing Bank, the country showed the world the right way to deal with the people largely responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, said Charlie McGrath, founder of news website, Wide Awake News.

The US and other nations must take it as a model for the next time the too-big- to-fail corporations screw things up and ask for a bailout with taxpayers’ money, he added.

RT: The jail terms are the biggest penalty for such crimes in Iceland’s history. What is the significance of the precedent?

Charlie McGrath: It’s significant in regards to the 2008 crisis, because if you happen to be living here in the United States, where the majority of these too-big-to-fail institutions are headquartered, where the true corporates are, where the CEOs and COOs of these massive corporations live. Not one of them went to jail. Not one of them has been indicted. There’s been a handful of token fines, that had been paid by these corporations – and let me reiterate ‘by the corporations’, not by these individuals themselves.

So we see an actual government, an actual people and nation stepping up and saying: “I’m sorry, you committed fraud. You screwed over a nation. And you are going to pay for it by your butt being put behind bars.”

This is exactly what needed to happen in the United States and in the rest of the world. And my hat is off to Iceland for standing up to these bankers.

RT: Could there be broader ramifications of this case. Is Iceland setting a new bar for prosecution of financial fraud?

Continue reading →