Norwegian Agency Accuses Glitnir of Embezzlement

24/10/2008

Eksportfinans ASA of Norway, a semi-public export finance agency, accused Iceland’s Glitnir Bank of embezzlement earlier this week and reported Glitnir’s parent company for an alleged misappropriation of NOK 415 million (USD 58 million, EUR 45 million).

According to aftenposten.no, Eksportfinans funded loans with Glitnir acting as its agent in 2005, which entails that all loan payments went through Glitnir.

When Glitnir Bank was nationalized by the Icelandic state, Eksportfinans requested that borrowers direct payment to them instead of Glitnir and consequently discovered that borrowers had paid off the loans in full and Glitnir had kept the funds, sending only the regular loan payments to Eksportfinans, as the agency’s director Gisele Marchand revealed.

Eksportfinans is now laying claim to assets in Glitnir’s Norwegian banking operations, which were recently overtaken by Norway’s SpareBank 1.

Glitnir Securities has been taken over by its employees and Oslo-based ship brokerage firm RS Platou, which recently acquired a majority stake in the company and will re-brand it as RS Platou Markets.

Norwegian authorities are backing Glitnir deposits in Norway. They have also taken over the Norwegian operations of Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, guaranteeing the savings of Norwegian deposit holders there as well.

Morgunbladid reports that the Norwegian police have seized the assets of Iceland’s Landsbanki Bank in Norway as collateral for claims from the state of North Holland, which deposited EUR 80 million (USD 100 million) to the online savings unit of Landsbanki in the Netherlands in July and August this year.

icelandreview.com