Former Director General of Iceland’s Financial Supervisory Authority Gunnar Þ. Andersen has been sentenced to pay 2 million ISK or spend 44 days in prison, Visir reports. This sentence follows charges against Gunnar for leaking financial documents about investment firm Bogamanninn last year.
Þórarinn Már Þórbjörnsson, a Landsbanki employee who delivered confidential financial information to Gunnar, was also sentenced to pay a 1 million ISK fine or spend 40 days in prison. The two men were also ordered to pay their defence lawyers fees.
In 2012, Gunnar had Þórarinn obtain information showing that Landsbanki deposited 32.7 million ISK into Bogamanninn’s account on June 13, 2003. Gunnar then handed these documents to a third party, Ársæll Valfells, to deliver them anonymously to a reporter at DV newspaper. An article about this shady transaction subsequently appeared in DV on February 29, 2012.
Gunnar says he leaked the documents in order to instigate a debate about transparency of business practices between Bogamanninn’s owner and Independence Party MP, Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarsson, and Landsbanki. He was also displeased with the way Guðlaugur was talking about him publicly and believed he was being slandered.
At the time of the document leak, Gunnar was clashing with the board of the Financial Supervisory Authority who had issued a review of his competency as Director General. He was fired upon their discovery of his actions.
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