Newly appointed special prosecutor investigating last year’s bank collapse, Olafur Hauksson, received a glowing review from renowned corruption hunter Eva Joly, in an article appearing in the Financial Times.
“He is very hard working and very honest. With these qualities you can learn,” Joly said. “The weather is so bad here that the wind can turn your car around. He still lives in his village [a 40-minute drive from Reykjavik] yet he has never been away from the office for more than half a day.”
Hauksson is the former police chief of the town of Akranes. The Financial Times article, focusing on Hauksson’s outsider status, noted that if you search for him on Google Images, “the first one shows him dressed in a camouflage outfit proudly clutching a 12-pound rainbow trout beside a stream.”
Hauksson, despite his being a newcomer to the situation, displays confidence. “We have to have a thick skin and not let [the criticism] distract us from our focus,” he says in part. “I’m feeling stronger and more able every day.”
Joly believes that the investigation into possible wrongdoing within Iceland’s banks will not conclude for another five years, with the first prosecutions as soon as next year.