17th July 2012
Contributing Writer for Wake Up World
Previously, I wrote for Wake Up World about just how incredible and successful the Icelandic handling of their financial crisis really was. While a lot has gone on since then, one thing that hasn’t changed all too much is the eerie silence from the mainstream media on the subject.
Yet the people of Iceland are not giving up. Clearly, they have a strong drive to see justice had in this case of widespread thievery.
Now the government has hired what Business Insider calls “a white collar crime bounty hunter” in order to investigate and track down some of the individuals who participated in the destruction of the Icelandic banking industry.
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While the character sounds somewhat fantastical, he is actually just a policeman in a relatively small town around 50 km outside the Icelandic capital Reykjavik called Akranes, with a population of only 6,500.
Yet this man has worked tirelessly in the wake up the Icelandic (and global) economic collapse in 2008 in an effort to bring the criminals responsible to account for their actions.
This is quite a change of pace from countries like the United States of America, where no justice is seen and the Federal Reserve’s outlook on the economy remains quite grim. Similarly, the LIBOR scandal is unfolding and it seems like the British government might be directly tied into the massive fraud scheme.
Iceland, on the other hand, is dispatching former local police lieutenant Olafur Hauksson in order to investigate potential cases of fraud or other offenses, file lawsuits, track down the suspects and bring them to justice.
According to a piece translated by PressEurop and originally written by Charlotte Chabas and published in France’s Le Monde, they are already working on a whopping 100 priority cases.
“On one hand, we have to investigate all suspicion of fraud and offences committed before 2009, on the other hand, we bring the lawsuits against the suspects to court ourselves,” Hauksson explained.
PressEurop translates, “This is a “totally new” method which allows the investigators to “follow the case” and the judicial system to “know the cases like the back of their hand”. This is indispensable in order “to compete with the well-prepared defence attorneys”.”
Thankfully, the government has been making an effort to assist Hauksson in his investigation by modifying Icelandic banking secrecy laws.
Hauksson claims that now the team has “access to all information with no objections possible,” including access to international resources.
This investigation is especially difficult because most of those who are being targeted are high-level officials in the banking sector or former board members of banks.
These individuals often relocated – or fled depending on your point of view – from Iceland after the crisis in order to continue their careers in the banking sector.
The bankster exodus, as it were, makes it so that investigators have to not only search through the records of Icelandic banks, but also their foreign subsidiaries and thus involves questioning foreigners as well.
However, this is apparently not deterring Hauksson in the slightest.
“We enjoy full international cooperation,” he said.
While this is a monumental task, to say the least, I see the fact that it is even being approached as a phenomenal sign that there is hope for the world who would like to see these criminals held responsible for their egregious abuses of power and trust.
About the Author
Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at [email protected]
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