“Such allegations – that we are manipulating share prices – are extremely serious. We absolutely deny it,” says Andrew Honnor, spokesperson for one of the hedge funds accused, as quoted in a story on news website visir.is today.
[The text in this space was removed after a phone call from Andrew Honnor of Tulchan Communications, PR representative for one of the hedge funds.]
According to Einarsson, subsequently these funds, among others entities, systematically contacted the British media and analysts from British banks in an effort to widen CDS spreads and bring down the banks’ shares.
Representatives of three funds Einarsson named said that their policies prohibit them from expressing themselves about individual transactions with stocks and CDS. However, according to daily newspaper Fréttabladid, one of the funds holds a small stake in Kaupthing Bank. All the hedge funds deny Einarsson’s accusations.
“We need to examine this very carefully. Market abuses of this kind that seem to have been employed are both unethical and punishable by law. If this turns out to be the case, there are grounds to take this matter to task,” says Thórdur Fridjónsson, president of the Icelandic Stock Exchange. He says it is difficult to prove these claims, but that the Financial Supervisory Authority has various resources to call upon.
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