The information that two sisters intended to reveal if the Prime Minister did not meet their monetary demands has been revealed anyway. All parties implicated deny any wrongdoing.
Vísir reports that the blackmailers threatened to make public information that would connect Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson with the purchase of newspaper DV by the media company Vefpressan. According to sources close to Vísir, this information concerned a 60 million ISK overdraft from MP Bank to the company Vefpressan, which owns Pressan.
This overdraft was made in 2013, according to information compiled by the Media Commission, and came from MP Bank. The director of MP Bank is Sigurður Atli Jónsson, who is married to the Prime Minister’s sister. MP Bank’s Director of Asset Management, Sigurður Hannesson, was also one of the Prime Minister’s closest economic advisors.
Arnar Ægisson, the managing director of Pressan, told Vísir that while he could not remember how and for what reason the overdraft was made, he denied the Prime Minister had any connection to or communications with the company. Likewise, both the Prime Minister and Björn Ingi Hrafnsson, who owns Vefpressan and chairs DV, denied any collusion in the purchase of DV.
As reported, Björn Ingi was once a city councilperson for the Progressive Party, for which Sigmundur Davíð is the chairperson. The blackmailers, Malín Brand and Hlín Einarsdóttir, were arrested last Friday in a Hafnarfjörður lava field where they were awaiting a cash drop-off in exchange for their silence. Hlín, apart from being Björn Ingi’s ex-girlfriend, was editor of Bleikt.is, which is a sub-site of Pressan.is, a part of Vefpressan.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
