WHERE DID ICELAND'S MONEY GO?

Photo Source [1] Author James Cridland

The Sunday telegraph, on 13 December 2009, tells us that the UK's Serious Fraud Office is to probe the collapse of Kaupthing, an Icelandic bank

Kaupthing bank's lent money to Russian vodka tycoon Yuri Shefler to buy a yacht and to someone buying a £82 million yacht for a member of the Saudi Royal family. (Kaupthing’s loan book is tale of woe)

Kaupthing bank lent £40 million to Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy and Bahamas-based billionaire Joe Lewis, according to the loan book. (Spurs chairman Levy used club’s shares to get £40m loan)

Kaupthing's loan book, which was leaked on to the internet, shows that around one third of its €16bn corporate loan book was going to a small elite connected to the bank's owners and management. (Iceland: what ugly secrets are waiting to be exposed in the ...)

Kaupthing bank "had relationships with a number of leading UK entrepreneurs - including Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley and property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz." ( Serious Fraud Office is to probe the collapse of Kaupthing, an Icelandic bank )

Tchenguiz, a former billionaire property investor, "was Kaupthing's biggest client as well as a director of its largest shareholder."

Tchenguiz "borrowed €1.7bn to finance his private investments from the bank."

Kaupthing also financed acquisitions by Sports Direct owned by Mike Ashley.

Icelandic investigators "have put Moises and Mendi Gertner, the London-based entrepreneurs, under scrutiny." (Serious Fraud Office is to probe the collapse of Kaupthing, an Icelandic bank)

The First Lady of Iceland is Dorrit Moussaieff.

She is an Israeli Bukharian Jew.

Moussaieff has also introduced the Jewish culture to Iceland in a very positive way. [1]

Iceland appears to have vast oil and gas reserves in the Arctic.

Iceland is in a strategically important position.

Most Icelanders have, in the past, opposed getting tied up with the European Community and NATO.

Iceland has no standing army.

In 2002-03, Iceland’s three major banks were privatized 'in a series of insider dealings'.

These banks then went under 'owing nearly $100 billions.'

In April 2009, Iceland's election was won by the 'centre-left' which wants to join the European Community.

Professor Michael Hudson, at Global Research, on 29 April 2009, wrote:

In the Wake of Economic Collapse. Iceland’s Election: It’s not about Left and Right

Among the points made:

1. The election in Iceland, in April 2009, was not about 'right' versus 'left'.

It was largely about reckless banks.

The neoliberals wanted banks privatised; crooks were able to wreck the financial system.

2. Some voters want Iceland to join the European Community in order to get a more stable currency (the euro).

If Iceland joins the EC it will most likely lose control over its North Atlantic fishing waters and its taxes will most likely rise.

3. Iceland is a small country and may be ripe for plucking.

For many voters the idea of joining the European Union is 'an attractive fantasy'.

Reykjavík by Wurzeller

4. The alternative is for Iceland to change its bank rules and 'reverse the giveaways made in times past to politically connected insiders.'

5. Countries such as Romania and Bulgaria voted to join the EU in the early 1990s.

The EU leadership apparently turned a blind eye to 'the Soviet-style kleptocrats who dominated these economies'.

6. The case of Latvia and its Baltic neighbors 'is instructive'

Much like Iceland, they were burdened with mortgage debts denominated in foreign currency.

Joaqim Almunia of the European Commission, in a letter of 26 January2009, to Latvia’s Prime Minister, spelt out the terms on which Europe would bail out the foreign banks operating in Latvia – at Latvia’s own expense.

He was clear that Latvia was not to use EU loans to develop its economy or to lighten the tax burden, but only to pay off debts to its creditors in the West (mainly Scandinavian banks) and to buy imports from them.

This leaves Latvia 'in much the position of a nation defeated in war and having to pay reparations.'

7. "Instead of helping the post-Soviet nations develop self-reliant economies, the West viewed them as economic oysters to be broken up, indebting them to extract interest charges and capital gains, leaving them empty shells."

Iceland might end up replacing "a domestic kleptocracy with foreign economic occupiers."

8. "The failure of EU tutelage in the Baltics and Central Europe suggests that Iceland would do best to set about solving its own problems, pursuing its national interest while cleaning up the residue from its disastrous neoliberal experiment."

VIDEO OF PROTESTS WHEN ICELAND JOINED NATO IN 1949

Reportedly, Iceland borrowed too much money.

Might someone have wanted to weaken Iceland and make it easier to control?

1. In 2005, Icelandic media reports alleged that CIA planes had landed in Iceland at least 67 times since 2001. (BBC - Nordic states probe 'CIA flights')

2. Bobby Fischer arrived in Iceland in March 2005.

Bobby Fischer "spent his final years raging against an Icelandic bank and 'the filthy dirty CIA-controlled Icelandic government'". (Cached)

3. According to The Reykjavik Grapevine:

In a 9 page classified CIA document called “Current Situation in Iceland” published 18 October 1949 and declassified 23 January 1978, the CIA makes political observations regarding security, the communist threat and the economic status of the country:

“Icelanders are opposed to the establishment of foreign military bases on their island in time of peace, but would probably be willing to receive NATO forces if war or the threat of war made Iceland’s involvement seem imminent.

“Solely because of its strategic location, Iceland has been drawn into the current of world affairs, albeit unwillingly and hesitantly. Icelanders desire only to be left alone, but it is as clear to them as to others that their island will not be left alone in war; perhaps not even in peace."

4. 21 August 2008: "Iceland is to join the growing rush of countries aiming to tap into the potentially vast oil and gas reserves of the Arctic. Reykjavik is hoping to attract investment from some of the world's biggest oil companies as it finalises the terms for its first offshore licences." (Iceland to offer offshore drilling licences in race for Arctic's ...)

Drilling licences for big untapped oilfields that Iceland shares with Norway were last month offered to prospectors and oil companies. US and Russian companies are sure to be interested. (Nato fears as Iceland turns to Moscow for £3bn loan Mail Online)

5. Jon Asgeir Johannesson ... "there were wild allegations in a Miami courtroom in 2003 about exotic parties on a yacht." (Business big shot: Jon Asgeir Johannesson - Times Online)

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