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Friday, October 23rd, 2015

Iceland does what the US won’t: 26 top bankers sent to prison for role in financial crisis

Author:     The Free Thought Project
Source:     The Free Thought Project/The Raw Story
Publication Date:     21 Oct 2015 at 22:16 ET
Link: Iceland does what the US won’t: 26 top bankers sent to prison for role in financial crisis
Stephan:   SR readers know that I have been closely tracking what is happening in Iceland's financial sector after the collapse. (See AR archives) In contrast to the United States and the EU Iceland not only didn't use tax monies to bail out bankers, thus allowing banks to fail, they are also putting these greedy scoundrels in jail. Here is the latest.
Credit: Shutterstock

Credit: Shutterstock

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – 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 […]

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