Iceland just jailed 7 bank executives for market manipulation!
Their sentences range from one to four years.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (PNN) - June 27, 2015 - In one of the biggest cases of its kind, seven executives from the Kaupþing Bank have been handed prison sentences for market manipulation today.
By fully financing share purchases with no other surety than the shares themselves, the bank was accused of giving a false and misleading impression of demand for Kaupþingi shares by means of deception and pretense.
They were accused of trying to artificially inflate share prices in 2008 by using the bank’s funds to buy shares.
The court case began in late April, and the hearings were the most wide-ranging and complex in Icelandic legal history. Over 50 witnesses were called, and testimony lasted for many weeks. They were quizzed on the nine defendants’ suspected illegal trade in their own bank’s shares in the lead up to its collapse. Charges laid by the Special Prosecutor claimed that the widespread illegal trade was carefully choreographed and highly deceptive.
By jailing these executives of Iceland’s failed Kaupþing Bank, the country showed the world how to deal with corrupt banks.
