(Fraud? What fraud?   – promoted by eli_beckerman)

This was quite a popular note on my Facebook page.

Following major bank failures in 2008, both the US and Iceland elected new governments. One of the new governments fired the bank presidents and began criminal investigations. Guess which one.

From Iceland Review:

Former Chair of Iceland’s Kaupthing Arrested in London

Sigurdur Einarsson, former chairman of the defunct Icelandic bank Kaupthing, was arrested in London at 5:30 this morning along with the bank’s biggest customer, Robert Tchenguiz, and five others in a joint operation by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor in Iceland.

Raids were conducted at the offices of two companies and the homes of eight individuals in London in conjunction with the arrests, visir.is reports.

According to the newspaper’s sources, Tchenguiz’s brother Vincent and Ármann Thorvaldsson, the former director of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, were also among those arrested.

The companies that were searched include Rotch Property, a real estate company under the ownership of Vincent Tchenguiz.

According to the SFO, the raids and arrests are in connection with the fall of Kaupthing. The operation was conducted by 135 police officers.

In Reykjavík, raids were carried out at the homes of two individuals and two persons were arrested. Their names have not been released but they are said to be in their early forties.

These raids and arrests were conducted at the request of the SFO. Police officers and investigators from the Special Prosecutor’s Office were involved along with SFO representatives.