Two of UK's wealthiest businessmen arrested over Icelandic financial fraud

[doodle]

Not at par with Bernie Madoff scams in US but pretty big news for Europeans:


Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz were arrested early this morning and are being questioned by police in central London.

Robert Tchenguiz was a director and key borrower of Kaupthing until it failed during Iceland’s financial collapse in 2008. He was thought to owe up to £1.72 billion when it collapsed.
Kaupthing last year became the subject of a Serious Fraud Office probe regarding alleged manipulation of the markets.



http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/46316/tchenguiz-brothers-arrested-icelandic-bank-probe

[Firestarter]

First some more on the bankrupted Kaupthing Bank, in which Meidur, now called Exista owned a 25% stake. A controlling share in Exista was held by the Bakkavör holding company of Agust and Lydur Gudmun.
In 2005, the 2 owners of Exista were Quenon Investment Limited and Shapburg Limited. Shapburg Limited also, together with the Russian Alfa Bank, owned a stake in the Luxembourg-registered Alfa Finance Holdings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exista

Many of the largest loans were to the brothers Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, their former brother-in-law Vivian Imerman, Simon Halabi, Nick and Christian Candy, Peter Shalson and Aneel Mussarat. Robert Tchenguiz was a major shareholder in Exista and the second largest borrower from Kaupthing, with “loans” of €1.37 billion.
The fourth largest investor in Kaupthing, Kevin Stanford, with 30.9 million shares “loaned” a total of €519 million.

Former head of the Finnish financial regulator, Kaarlo Jannari, explained the scheme like this:
In most cases, the assets pledged as collateral for these loans are shares in the companies in which these customers had invested the funds borrowed... My judgment is that their behaviour in this regard has been very imprudent. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/aug/04/iceland-bank-kaupthing-internet-leak
(archived here: http://archive.is/2Z1iN)


Vincent Tchenguiz was also the main shareholder in the SCL Group from 2005 to 2015, which orchestrated Brexit and made Donald Trump president of the USA: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?520558-Trump-Election-Consultant-Firm-Cambridge-Analytica-Execs-Caught-Discussing-Extortion-Fake-News


For more on the Alfa Bank communicating with the Spectrum Health of the DeVos family through a server of the Trump Organization during the presidential election in 2016: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?521494-Giuliani-to-Join-Trump%92s-Legal-Team&p=6620071&viewfull=1#post6620071