Stillness in the Storm

An Agent for Consciousness Evolution

Law Change Lets Iceland Bankers Out of Jail Early, Just Before Panama Papers Were Released

By Leave a Comment

Spread the love

Within days of the Panama Papers being released and the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, three bankers who were jailed for involvement in the 2008 financial crisis were released. 

Gunnlaugsson was forced to resign, or temporarily give up the Prime Minister role, partially due to the largest protests in Iceland’s history taking place after the release of the Panama Papers on Sunday.

The bankers, Sigurdur Einarsson, Olafur Olafsson, Magnus Gudmundsson, were released from a low-security prison yesterday. The reason provided was the passage of a new law that was rushed through Iceland’s parliament in March. 

Here’s how it was described by Icelandic Review,

“The parliamentary bill was changed in committee to allow five days of electronic monitoring for every month of a prisoner’s sentence, instead of 2.5 days as it has been. This means that a prisoner sentenced to one year in prison can now spend the last 60 days electronically tagged and in the community, instead of 30 days. The rule change means criminals can now be released earlier from prison.”

The bankers in question only served one of five years of their sentence, which begs the question, why were they released?

The above-quoted change in policy would only account for an additional 30 days of early release. Yet they had over four years left to serve in their jail sentence . Clearly the response provided by Icelandic Review is dubious.

Given Iceland is the only nation to jail bankers for the 2008 financial crisis, one wonder’s, if the Panama Papers leak was a covert attack. The policy change coinciding with the leak may also suggest some kind of power shift is taking place in Iceland. 

No doubt more events will emerge as time goes on.

Related The Panama Papers Largest Leak in History | Propaganda, Preparation for Mass Arrests or Evidence of Silent Cold War?

– Justin

Source – Zero Hedge

Days After Iceland’s PM Resigns Over “Panama Papers”, Its Bankers Are Released From Jail Years Early

By Tyler Durden 

How very ironic.
Over the weekend, just hours before the Panama Papers were released, we wrote a post that took “A Look Inside Iceland’s Kviabryggja Prison: The One Place Where Criminal Bankers Face Consequences.”
And then, minutes later, the Panama Papers were disclosed by the ICIJ, which had a clear target: to “expose” the “circle of friends close to Putin”, and of course, to reveal the dirty laundry of the Iceland Prime Minister, who resigned just two days after his shady offshore tax dealing were revealed to the world.
There was some “conspiratorial” speculation whether the explicit hit on ex-PM Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was precisely due to Iceland’s crackdown on the country’s criminal bankers. As a reminder, Iceland is the only nation that sent bankers found guilty of crimes resulting from the financial crisis, to prison.
It turns out there may have been something valid in said speculation, because moments ago, Iceland Monitor reported that three bankers from the defunct Iceland bank Kaupthing are to be released from jail today – after serving just one year of their 5-year sentences.

Magnús Guðmundsson, Ólafur Ólafsson and Sigurður Einarsson were one of four men jailed in 2015 in the so-called ‘Al-Thani case’ on charges of breach of trust and market abuse.

Sigurður Einarsson, former chairman at Kaupþing, received a sentence of four years, while Magnús Guðmundsson, former CEO of Kaupthing Luxembourg, and Ólafur Ólafsson, who was the bank’s second largest shareholder at the time, both received a sentence of four and a half years.
They will be taken to a halfway house today, where they will be fitted with ankle tags and released under electronic supervision.
Hreiðar Már Sig­urðsson , Sig­urður Ein­ars­son and Magnús Guðmunds­son.
* * *
Case closed, but the question lingers: is the Panama Papers merely a warning to anyone in government who dares to put bankers in prison to make sure that their own financial documents are in pristine condition, or else?
New Iceland law allows jailed bankers to walk free amid Panama Papers scandal
Three top figures from Iceland’s failed Kaupthing Bank have been released from jail after barely serving a quarter of their sentences due to a new law. It comes as Iceland deals with a fresh scandal linking the ex-PM to both the Panama offshore revelations and the bank.
Former chairman of Kaupthing, Sigurdur Einarsson, its biggest shareholder, Olafur Olafsson, and the finance director of the Luxembourg branch, Magnus Gudmundsson, were released from the low-security Kviabryggju prison on Thursday.
The bankers have served just one year of their four-to-five year sentences. All were convicted of financial fraud ahead of the collapse of the country’s biggest bank in October 2008.
The bankers were accused of concealing an investor from Qatar who bought a 5.1 percent equity stake in Kaupthing, with the money illegally provided as a loan from the bank itself.
The release was made possible due to a new law which was rushed through a parliamentary vote in March.
The law enables prisoners to spend double the amount of time under electronic surveillance in the comfort of their own homes than previously had been allowed, while being released earlier from jail.
The Icelandic Review explained the new law further:
“The parliamentary bill was changed in committee to allow five days of electronic monitoring for every month of a prisoner’s sentence, instead of 2.5 days as it has been. This means that a prisoner sentenced to one year in prison can now spend the last 60 days electronically tagged and in the community, instead of 30 days. The rule change means criminals can now be released earlier from prison.”

Icelandic media reports question why the new bill was passed so quickly. Some claimed that the chair of the Alþingi General Committee and MP for the Independence Party, Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir, was responsible for the bill.
Left Green MP Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttir alleged to Iceland’s Stundin newspaper that the change in the law seemed to be made specifically for the three bankers, adding that rushing it through seemed inappropriate during this time.
Iceland has been dealing with a new financial scandal, after the Panama Papers leak revealed information that former Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson allegedly failed to declare his stake in an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands to avoid paying taxes in Iceland. Local media also linked the offshore allegations to the Icelandic banking crisis, for which Kaupthing Bank managers were jailed, and in connection to which Gunnlaugsson had already been accused of taking a softer stance towards the bankers.
The Panama Papers were published on Sunday and are said to be“the largest leak in offshore history.” They claim to reveal the offshore holdings of over 100 international politicians and public officials, including 12 current and former world leaders.
The scandal escalated quickly in Iceland, with massive protests forcing Gunnlaugsson to resign on Tuesday, even though he denied violating the law. According to a Gallup poll conducted ahead of Gunnlaugsson’s resignation, a whopping 81 percent of Icelanders wanted the PM to resign.
The Icelandic center-right coalition appointed Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, the deputy chairman of the disgraced former PM, as the country’s new prime minister and scheduled early elections for the fall.

_________


 Sources:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-07/case-closed-icelands-bankers-released-jail-years-early

https://www.rt.com/news/338869-iceland-imprisoned-bankers-free/

Image Source – http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2016/03/27/iceland%20bankers_0.jpg

Notices and Disclaimers

We need $2000 per month to pay our costs. Help us one time or recurring. (DONATE HERE)

To sign up for RSS updates, paste this link (https://stillnessinthestorm.com/feed/) into the search field of your preferred RSS Reader or Service (such as Feedly or gReader).

Subscribe to Stillness in the Storm Newsletter

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle

This website is supported by readers like you.

If you find our work of value, consider making a donation. 

Stillness in the Storm DISCLAIMER: All articles, videos, statements, claims, views and opinions that appear anywhere on this site, whether stated as theories or absolute facts, are always presented by Stillness in the Storm as unverified—and should be personally fact checked and discerned by you, the reader. Any opinions or statements herein presented are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, or agreed to by Stillness, those who work with Stillness, or those who read Stillness. Any belief or conclusion gleaned from content on this site is solely the responsibility of you the reader to substantiate, fact check, and no harm comes to you or those around you. And any actions taken by those who read material on this site is solely the responsibility of the acting party. You are encouraged to think carefully and do your own research. Nothing on this site is meant to be believed without question or personal appraisal.

Content Disclaimer: All content on this site marked with “source – [enter website name and url]” is not owned by Stillness in the Storm. All content on this site that is not originally written, created, or posted as original, is owned by the original content creators, who retain exclusive jurisdiction of all intellectual property rights. Any copyrighted material on this site was shared in good faith, under fair use or creative commons. Any request to remove copyrighted material will be honored, provided proof of ownership is rendered. Send takedown requests to [email protected].

What is our mission? Why do we post what we do?

Our mission here is to curate (share) articles and information that we feel is important for the evolution of consciousness. Most of that information is written or produced by other people and organizations, which means it does not represent our views or opinions as managing staff of Stillness in the Storm. Some of the content is written by one of our writers and is clearly marked accordingly. Just because we share a CNN story that speaks badly about the President doesn’t mean we’re promoting anti-POTUS views. We’re reporting on the fact as it was reported, and that this event is important for us to know so we can better contend with the challenges of gaining freedom and prosperity. Similarly, just because we share a pro/anti-[insert issue or topic] content, such as a pro-second amendment piece or an anti-military video doesn’t mean we endorse what is said. Again, information is shared on this site for the purpose of evolving consciousness. In our opinion, consciousness evolves through the process of accumulating knowledge of the truth and contemplating that knowledge to distill wisdom and improve life by discovering and incorporating holistic values. Thus, sharing information from many different sources, with many different perspectives is the best way to maximize evolution. What’s more, the mastery of mind and discernment doesn’t occur in a vacuum, it is much like the immune system, it needs regular exposure to new things to stay healthy and strong. If you have any questions as to our mission or methods please reach out to us at [email protected].

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.