Björgúlfur Gudmundsson ,declared banckrupt today

Björgúlfur Gudmundsson,was declared banckrupt today by an Icelandic court.
Björgúlfur,father of Björgúlfur Thor Björgúlfsson, has been a big name in the Banking industry in Iceland.
He was in the Samson group,that bought 45 percent in Landsbankinn .
He was also a big financier in the buying of the english football club ,West Ham.

Björgúlfur was on the Forbes list of the riches people on earth,and he was valued at 1.2 billion US dollars.
His son,Björgúlfur Thor,was also on Forbes list over the wealthiest men on earth.

Here is a link to Forbes magazine article about him

Photos: Top Björgúlfur Thor
below Börgúlfur Gudmundsson

Big money in Icelands CEO´s

According to a local newspaper ,DV,Ólafur Ólafsson of Samskip,had his money in Kaupthing in Luxemburg.
And just before the Banking Crash last fall,he moved part of it ,into Goverment Bonds.
Wekk after he did that,Kaupthing was nationalized by the Icelandic Goverment.

Now the goverment is sending out Tax returns to the people of Iceland.
The tax returns are public,so the newspapers can check out how musch money people are baing paid.
Union leaders are taking over a million kronas per month.

Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson,former CEO of Kaupthing ,had ,according to his Tax returns,35.817.597 kronas,per month.

Sigurjón Þ. Árnasson ,former CEO of Landsbanki,had 22.899.141 kronas.

The foreing exhange rate is today : 1 USD = 128 kronas
1 Euro = 182 kronas



Photos:
top : Sigrjón Þ. Árnasson
middle: Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson
below: Ólafur Ólafsson

Is Holland planning to invade Iceland ?

A Dutch web page ,a humor and joke page ,Hersenscheet , has started a campaign,to invade Iceland under the slogan IceSayNo .
According to them,Iceland must make big changes ,before Iceland can join the EU.

Hersenscheet has sent to the Dutch representatives in Brussels their propositions ,and also plans on invading Iceland.
They also say that the ICelandic army is a joke .
And that is correct ,Iceland does not have a army of any kind.,Hersenscheet , has started a campaign,to invade Iceland under the slogan IceSayNo .
According to them,Iceland must make big changes ,before Iceland can join the EU.


Hersenscheet has sent to the Dutch representatives in Brussels their propositions ,and also plans on invading Iceland.
They also say that the ICelandic army is a joke .
And that is correct ,Iceland does not have a army of any kind.

Here is a links to Hersenscheet

IceSayNo

Iceland invasion plans

Iceland in EU ,earthquake and more

Today the unemployment is at 16.500 people with out a job.
The foreign secretaries of the Europian Union, decided to send the Icelandic application for membership to the EU, to the EU commison,the EU executive branch.
This will start the process,that can take three to four years.

And a few weeks ago ,in a Icelandic magazine ,a lady that claims to see into the future,sayd ,that on the 27th of july ,2009, a big earthquake will be in the soutwest part of ICeland ,and she also a gave a time on it,at 23:15 hours .
She is said to have predicted the earthquake in 2000 ,wich was 6.5 on the Richter scale.

Britain humiliates Iceland ?

In the agrreement between the Icelandic and British goverment about the Icesave account,there is a clause that says that Iceland must pay for the cost that the British goverment ,due to the Icesave accounts.
This means ,that Iceland has to pay for the cost ,that the British goverment had to pay to work on the Icesave accounts.
That means that Iceland must pay the legal bill,that the British goverment claims that they have spent on.
Iceland has to pay 2 billion kronas to the British goverment for the cost of contacting the Icesave acoount owners in Britain.
.
Bjarni Benediktsson ,the leader of the Independent party,looks on this clause ,as a humiltion for the Icelandic goverment -

Photo: Bjarni Benediktsson

Iceland parliement in recess - back in august

Icelands parliement ( Althingi ) is now in recess ,until after the mearchant holiday weekend .
This will give the select committie more time to discuss the Iceasave agreement.
The Icesave aggrement is about paying account owners in Holland and England,the sum of 650 billion kronas.
Members of parliement do not all agree on why the goverment should pay the debt of a Private Bank .
Parliement will come from back recess on the 4th of august.

Norwegian bank stops loaning Icelandic companys.

A Norwegian Investment Bank has stopped loaning money to Icelandic companys.
The Bank thinks that the risks in loaning to Icelandic companys is to high.
Last year the Bank lost 145 million Euros.
Half of the loss is traced to ICelandic companys.

If Iceland agrees on paying the Icesave accounts in Europe,that could change the policy of the bank towards Icelandic companys.
A board member in the Bank ,says that it is not about companys credibility,it is about the credibilty of Iceland.

Holland puts pressure on Iceland

According to Dutch media,the Dutch Foreign Minister is putting pressure on Össur Skarphédinsson ,Icelands foreign minister ,to finish the Icesave agreement as soon as possible.
Dutch media claims ,that Dutch Foreign Minister, Maxime Verhage,told the Icelandic foreign minister,that the Icesave agreement should be finished as soon as possible,if Iceland wants to meet the requirements to join the EU .

Össur ,the Icelandic Foreing minsiter has comfirmed ,that the Dutch Foreign minister called him today .

Photo: Icelands Foreign Minister

Iceland banks privatized - foreign owners

Two of the three nationalized banks in Iceland - Glitnir and Kaupthing ,will be privatized again.
Today at a press meeting ,the Prime minister and Finance minister announced that Glitnir and Kaupthing bank are going to be privatized again.
The new owners will be foreign parties that the banks owed during the banking crisis.
It will probably be big foreign banks and individulas that have claims to the banks.
Icelandic goverment will not say who the owners will be ,due to banking secrecy .

Icesave for Iceland parliement on july 20 2009

Tomorrow there will be in Parliement put to a vote,accepting the deal on Icesave repayment agreed with the Netherlands and the UK.
Not every party is going to vote for it.
Some say ,why should the goverment sequre deals made by private banks ?
But others say ,that if the goverment does not accept the responsabilty,then the Icelandic nation would find itself no more respected than Cuba and North Korea .
In the meantime ,the Icelandic billionares ,the banks CEO´s at the time of the banking crash, have been very silent and not seen for the past months.
Many are asking the goverment to reject the the deal ,and on Facebook,a group of over 30.000 people are against the deal ,that is going for a vote in Parliement on monday.
While this is going on ,and the puplic in Iceland is going broke,many of the CEO´s of the banks,the billionares that are responsable for this Banking crisis,are enjoying the good life .

Iceland’s Prime Minister ,Johanna Sigurdardottir,says,that the Parliement must vote for paying the Icesave debt, that there is no " plan b ".

Iceland votes to apply for Europian Union Membership

July the 16th ,2009 ,The Icelandic Parliament has voted to apply for European Union membership.
33 votes were for membership, 28 were against,and 2 did not vote.
Iceland will submit an application formally in Brussels on 27 July.
The vice chairman of the Independence party ,Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir,did not vote .

Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir declared the vote on membership to the EU,historic.

Here below is a video of Asbyrgi , a national park in Iceland

Protest in Iceland against EU membership

The controlling parties in Iceland,the Left Green Movement and the Social Democratic Alliance,are putting to a vote at the Icelandic parliement,to join the Europian Union.
And people where today at the parliement protesting,and shouting at parliement building.
Not everybody is for the Europian Union.
Part of the Left Green Movement is not for it ,and now there are a lot of discussion in parliement.
Some in the oppositon parties are for joining the EU .
The vote will probably be tomorrow at 12:00 .

Some members of parliement came outside ,to talk to protesters

One of the protester who was shouting at the parliement building,using words ,like - Treason ,traitors and such - was asked by the parliement guard to go farther away from the building,wish he refused.

Hotel burns to the ground at Thingvellir in Iceland

The Hotel at Thingvellir ,the most sacred part of Iceland ,burned to the ground yesterday.
It was an old building ,made of timber.
Firefighters fought the fire ,but could not stop it.
The Icelandic Coast Guard helicopter came with firefighters from Reykjavik,to assist the local firefighter crew.
Here you can see a video from the fire ---- VIDEO

Civil war in Iceland ??

Bjorgulfur Gudmundsson and his son ,Bjorgulfur Thor Bjorgulfsson,have asked that half of their debts to Kaupthing Bank ,be written off and they do not have to pay half.
That would mean ,that they would not have to pay ,3 billion kronas.
Bjorgulfur Thor Bjorgulfsson is estimated to own now - 170 billion kronas.
In the meantime ,familys are offered ,getting their lones, on longer time period.
Representives of people and familys in debt in Iceland ,say ,that if they dont pay all their debt,then every promice from the goverment to the public,is void.
One ,represting Icelands stock holders,mr: Vilhjálmur Bjarnason, said ,that if they do not pay all
of their debts,that would mean a civil war in Iceland .


Since the banking crises started here in Iceland ,last october ,2008 - about 1000 Icelandic citizens have moved to Norway.

Photos : Top - Bjorgulfur Thor Bjorgulfsson
bottom : Vilhjalmur Bjarnarsson

Strange loans in Iceland

Still,there are information coming here in Iceland.
Employees at the top at Kaupthing Bank,got special loans ,to buy stock in the bank.
And the Kaupthing board of directors,decided ,that they would not have to pay fot the loan they got.
One of the employees ,was Kristjan Arason,husband to the vice chairman of the Independence party.
She ,Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir ,was last year ,the education minister in the ICelandic goverment.
Kristjan had a 890 millon krona loan ,a so called " bubble loan " ( kúlulán) .
Wich means that the sequrity on that loan to buy stock,is the stock itself.
23 employees of kaupthing ,got special service from the board of the Bank.
And do not have to pay the loan they got.

Meanwhile public is going bankrupt,and many moving from Iceland.
Many have to go to the family help service,once a week,to get food for their familys.

More corruption surfacing in Iceland ?

At Kaupthing Bank ,a loanbook from the bank,that one of the newspapers here in has ICeland has,shows ,that 22 of the senior employees,got loans to buy stock in the bank,in the amount of 23 billion kronas.
And at a bank board meeting ,it was decided that personal sequrities for these loans,should be dropped,and they should not have to pay the loans they got to buy the stock.
Those who got the loans ,are no longer working at the bank.

One of the loantakers,his wife was the education minister in the ICelandic goverment ,when the banking crisis hit last october ( 2008 )
To pay these debts,and the Icesave account in Europe - the ICelandic parliement is about to put into law,that Iceland will pay that debt.

And that means raising taxes on the public in Iceland.
Income tax,gas tax and so on.

New Icelandic Coast Guard airplane DASH 8q 300

Today , a new Icelandic Coast Guard plane landed for the first time in Iceland.
This is a DASH 8 q 300 - type,and with all the neccesary equipment that a coast guard plane should have.
Two coast guard helicopter came in formation with the new plane.
Then after landing there where speaches at Icelandic Coast GUard HQ.
Before this,the coast used for the last 32 years, a Fokker 27 .
So it was about ti More..me to get a new plane for the Icelandic coast guard.

Click on the photos - and the will get bigger