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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIceland sentences 26 bankers to a combined 74 years in prison
In a move that would make many capitalists head explode if it ever happened here, Iceland just sentenced their 26th banker to prison for their part in the 2008 financial collapse.
In two separate Icelandic Supreme Court and Reykjavik District Court rulings, five top bankers from Landsbankinn and Kaupping the two largest banks in the country were found guilty of market manipulation, embezzlement, and breach of fiduciary duties. Most of those convicted have been sentenced to prison for two to five years. The maximum penalty for financial crimes in Iceland is six years, although their Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments to consider expanding sentences beyond the six year maximum.
After the crash in 2008, while congress was giving American banks a $700 billion TARP bailout courtesy of taxpayers, Iceland decided to go in a different direction and enabled their government with financial supervisory authority to take control of the banks as the chaos resulting from the crash unraveled.
Back in 2001, Iceland deregulated their financial sector, following in the path of former President Bill Clinton. In less than a decade, Iceland was bogged down in so much foreign debt they couldnt refinance it before the system crashed.
Almost eight years later, the government of Iceland is still prosecuting and jailing those responsible for the market manipulation that crippled their economy. Even now, Iceland is still paying back loans to the IMF and other countries which were needed just to keep the country operating.
When Icelands President, Olafur Ragnar Grimmson was asked how the country managed to recover from the global financial disaster, he famously replied,
We were wise enough not to follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western financial world in the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the poor, and we didnt introduce austerity measures like youre seeing in Europe.
http://usuncut.com/world/iceland-sentences-26-bankers-to-a-combined-74-years-in-prison/
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)DURHAM D
(32,595 posts)think
(11,641 posts)DURHAM D
(32,595 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)think
(11,641 posts)rurallib
(62,342 posts)and to contrast to show that just being a woman would not bring about the house cleaning that we really need, few really expect Hillary Clinton to do no better job of going after those responsible for causing our bank failures than Obama has.
If Hillary is elected I sure hope I eat those words. But based on what we know, bankers should be able to continue to operate the way they have under Obama if Hillary is elected.
Human101948
(3,457 posts)Hillary will probably give them a savage tongue lashing and let it go at that.
Unknown Beatle
(2,672 posts)"Stop that!"
Javaman
(62,439 posts)are the very same people and members of corporations who are funding Hillary's campaign.
she's not about to jail the very people that are funding her run.
Nitram
(22,663 posts)Bernista's can't help themselves. No matter what the topic, they will butt in with a diss of Clinton and a shout out to Bernie. Sigh.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Thanks. I needed a good laugh today
Ilsa
(61,675 posts)Need some indictments, trials, and sentencing in the US.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Iceland did it right!
w0nderer
(1,937 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,626 posts)Overseas
(12,121 posts)90-percent
(6,828 posts)I just can't wait to hear her on DAY ONE:
Hey, you banksters and amoral money handlers:
CUT IT OUT!
-90% Jimmy
Recursion
(56,582 posts)SMH
Then again I guarantee you that most alleged opponents of "the banksters" don't even know which bank executives' trials are starting right now, because the doctrine is that That Never Happens.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)If he stole from the 99% like Goldman-Sachs, JP Morgan, etc. they wouldn't have done anyhting to him.
davemac
(28 posts)Take a good hard look folks. This is what should have happened around the world after the crash in 2008. But it didn't. Why? Because in the USA, the UK, Ireland...pretty much most of the EU.....Corporatists owned the politicians, the media and, especially in the case of the USA the judiciary (vote for your judge? Huh? Can it get any dumber?). Obama, hand-picked by the banksters did the banksters dealings and protected them. None put a foot in a courtroom let alone jail. In these elections, Hillary is their fall-back should the Republicans (their bought for and paid for Party) fail. Voting for someone because they are Christian (I think, in the case of America, we should correctly name these Khrystuns - not to be confused with followers of Christ who help the poor and who do not fawn and paw the golden calf), or white, or black, or which sexual parts are found on your body.....it is about the type of Government you want to rule your country....do you want banksters in jail or do you want them ruling over your government, do you want free education or endless wars, do you want clean rivers and fresh air or do you want Oligarchs to destroy the environment to create wealth they couldn't even possibly ever spend because, in some bizarre fantasy, you hope to one day be one of those Oligarchs?
I continue to be bewildered at how oblivious and/or tone deaf most Clinton people are. If you lay out actual facts, like her Iraq vote or her Wall Street sugar daddies, you are "bashing her" according to her supporters.
There should have been 24/7 perp walks of Wall Street big shots, and that includes the rating agencies who branded those toxic investments as AAA. Then a return of sane Wall Street regulations. Obama promised to be tough on Wall Street and did nothing of the sort. How gullible does one have to be to believe HRC will do anything much different, they are cut from the same Neo cloth.
davemac
(28 posts)Hell hath no fury like the truth.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)If they were convicted in the US that would cancel out their credentials if I'm not mistaken.
No more bankstering for you.
malaise
(267,791 posts)Bravo Iceland
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Skál!
Mendocino
(7,430 posts)Now put whalers in jail.