Iceland’s special investigation: The plot thickens

[Joanne98]

What brought down Iceland’s banks? This column examines the revelations from the latest report from the Icelandic parliament, raising the possibility that the collapse of Iceland’s three largest banks is the result of “control fraud” where shareholders stole from their own bank in the same way as those convicted of looting from the American saving and loan banks in the late 1980s.

The recently published nine-volume, 2,400-page report from the Icelandic Parliament‘s Special Investigation Commission (SIC, appropriately pronounced sick) is not an attempt at whitewash as many had feared. Those fears arose from the government’s unwillingness to appoint an international commission of enquiry as proposed by Professor Robert Aliber (see Aliber and Zoega, forthcoming) and others, including myself. Rather, the report confirms, and documents in detail, what many of us thought we already knew (Gylfason et al., 2010, Ch. 7). The report states: “Explanations for the collapse of Glitnir..., Kaupthing …, and Landsbanki … are first and foremost to be found in their rapid expansion and their subsequent size when they tumbled in October 2008.“ Further, the report states (see the report’s English version Special Investigation Commission 2010):



•“The largest owners of all the big banks had abnormally easy access to credit at the banks they owned, apparently in their capacity as owners. ... in all of the banks, their principal owners were among the largest borrowers.”

Continued>>>
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4965

[westerebus]

1. Golum is looking for a few new V.P,'s.

This crew should fit in nicely.

[leahcim]

2. Funniest part of the article:

And then there was the dinner party in Reykjavik where singer George Michael had been scheduled to land on the glass roof in a roaring helicopter, but to the great embarrassment of the bank’s director of entertainment the plan fell through.

[Po_d Mainiac]

6. Hmmmm?? No one could have seen that coming!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. So they acted as if the banks were their personal wallets.

Exactly when did integrity leave the planet?

From every thing I have read, this is/was happening pretty much worldwide!
A whole planet of crooks stuffing each nation's money into their own pockets.

Including our own dear Timmy and Ben and etc.

[westerebus]

4. 22 November1963.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Aye