The verdicts in the so-called Arum and Imon cases were announced at Reykjavík District Court yesterday. All defendants in the former case were acquitted and all but one in the second. The Office of the Special Prosecutor must cover ISK 73 million (USD 648,000, EUR 475,000) in legal costs.
In the Aurum case, former CEO of Glitnir Bank Lárus Welding, investor Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson and Glitnir employees Magnús Arnar Arngrímsson and Bjarni Jóhannesson, all of whom had been charged with market manipulation, were found not guilty, Fréttablaðið reports [06.06.14.]
One out of three judges believed that Lárus, Jón Ásgeir and Magnús Arnar should have been convicted.
The case concerns a loan of ISK 6 billion granted by Glitnir Bank to the company FS38 ehf. in mid-2008 to buy shares in the British company Aurum Holding.
A representative of the Special Prosecutor’s Office stated that they will look through the judgment and then consider whether to appeal. The National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police will make the final decision.
In the Imon case, former Landsbanki CEO Sigurjón Árnason and former managing director of the bank’s company division Elín Sigfúsdóttir were found not guilty of market manipulation.
However, Steinþór Gunnarsson, Landsbanki’s former director of stock brokerage, was sentenced to nine months in prison on the same charges. He intends to appeal the judgment.
The verdict further stated that the special prosecutor had been in violation of the law when tapping the phones of Sigurjón and Elín while investigating the Imon case.
As stated in an earlier story, the special prosecutor’s charges involved three different cases, including that of the company Imon having bought shares worth ISK 9 billion in Landsbanki shortly before it collapsed in October 2008.
Allegedly, all of the shares had been bought by Landsbanki’s proprietary trading division. Imon was said to have received a loan from Landsbanki worth ISK 5 billion at the end of September 2008 to buy shares in the bank itself.
