Former Kaupthing director Sigurður Einarsson is now also being sought by the special prosecutor. Magnús Guðmundsson is now unemployed. Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon says he was misquoted by Morgunblaðið with regards to the arrests.
In the wake of arrests of two former Kaupthing bank managers – Hreiður Már Sigurðsson and Magnús Guðmundsson – former chairman of the board Sigurður Einarsson is also being sought, Eyjan reports. It has been pointed out that the kind of market manipulation that Hreiðar Már engaged in was far too comprehensive to have gone unnoticed, and had to have been done with either the tacit approval of or even the help of the chairman of the board. He is being sought by the special prosecutor to account for this.
In related news, former Kaupthing bank manager Magnús Guðmundsson is now also the former bank manager of Banque de Havilland. A meeting of the board held shortly after his arrest reached the conclusion to terminate Magnús from his position. In his place, one of the bank owners – Jonathan Rowland – will be taking over.
It also turns out that remarks Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon was said to have made by Morgunblaðið were actually made by the reporter quoting him. Being approached for comments on the arrests, Morgunblaðið reported that the arrests of the former Kaupthing bank managers had been done “to soothe the public”. This prompted an editorial in the same newspaper, where the minister was criticized for making such a remark. In light of this, Steingrímur felt compelled to comment, saying that the “soothe the public” remark was actually the journalist’s phrasing; not his own. He adds that what he actually said was that the arrests had had the effect of comforting the public – not that comforting the public was the reason for the arrests.
Anyways, announcement time:
Having been writing news and articles for the Grapevine since 2003, I decided to finally start a blog about Icelandic news and the people who report it. You can read it here. This is basically a place for more in-depth commentary on what’s going on in this country, and what sort of job the people reporting the news are doing. Not that it’ll be entirely serious, of course – humor and my personal biases will both play a big part in this. Comments are open to all. Hope to see you all there!