Leaked documents show Iceland PM sold bank assets hours before 2008 crash
According to leaked documents, Iceland's current Prime Minister, Bjarni Benediktsson, sold nearly all of his assets in major Icelandic bank Glitnir's investment fund on the same day the government took over the country's failing financial sector at the height of the 2008 crash.
Benediktsson, then a member of the parliament's economy and tax committee, disposed of millions of krona worth of assets just hours before an emergency law put control of Iceland's banks into state hands.
The PM had previously come under scrutiny as part of the so-called Panama Papers scandal where Benediktsson failed to disclose his shared 'power of attorney' over a Shell company called Falson and Co in the Seychelles that he allegedly used as a tax haven.
"I have not had any assets in tax havens or anything like that," he said in February 2015.
Former Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð resigned following the release of the papers after it was revealed that he failed to disclose to parliament his 50% share in US-based firm Wintris, paving the way for Benediktsson to fill his shoes.
Benediktsson has again claimed no wrongdoing, but with Iceland's 28 October election date approaching after his coalition collapsed in September over a scandal involving the PM's father and a convicted child sex offender, the new revelations were seen as yet another embarrassment for the Prime Minister.
According to new documents seen by the Guardian, other members of the prime minister's family sold assets in Glitnir's Sjoður 9 fund prior to the state takeover.
Benediktsson admitted in 2016 that he had personally sold assets from the fund "at one point" before the bank's collapse "nothing that mattered." The leaked documents showed he had ISK 165m in the fund in March 2008.
The leaked documents indicated Benediktsson withdrew ISK 30m from the Sjoður 9 fund on 2 October, four days before Iceland's Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) took control of the bank, before further instructions for a sale of ISK 21m on 6 October.
Benediktsson's uncle was also said to have sold just over ISK 1bn on 6 October, with records suggesting he was in telephone contact with Glitnir executives on the day.
After the crash, Glitnir's board examined last-minute sales from the fund for any possible insider trading violations but took no action
In 2016, the FSA said it there was " reasonable suspicion that certain parties" had broken insider information laws in Sjoður 9 sales, but the prosecutor, which said insider information cases were extremely hard to prove, took no action.