It's a list of who's who in the country, though probably not a list anyone wants to be on. Whether they will take legal action is difficult to say but they should. One hopes that when the US finally gets around to doing its report on the financial crisis, they will name names and prosecute. The 9/11 commission was a sorry whitewash that only delivered the traditional "nobody did anything wrong" report that we've come to expect. The Guardian:
"Rules about large risk exposures were not followed," the truth commission report found. "Judging by data the commission has requested from Kaupthing, it is hard to see that lending, to the extent that Tchenguiz companies received it during times of liquidity crisis, was decided with the banks' interests in mind."
The report also delivers unflinching attacks on Iceland's most senior politicians and civil servants, for their role in presiding over an out-of-control banking system. The most high-profile among them is David Oddsson, chairman of Iceland's central bank at the time of the crash, who shaped Iceland's economy as prime minister between 1991 and 2004, during which time he was the driving force behind a rapid privatisation of the banking sector.
The truth commission's report delivers formal findings of "mistakes or negligence" against Oddson, former prime minister Geir Haarde, former finance minister Árni Mathiesen and former minister of commerce Björgvin Sigurdsson. Two other former governors of Iceland's central bank are also named and shamed, as is the former head of the financial supervision authority (FME), Jónas Jónsson.
