Iceland’s most controversial banker, Sigurdur Einarsson, the former executive chairman of failed bank Kaupthing, has been made an official suspect by fraud prosecutors examining alleged market manipulation relating to an investment in the bank by Qatari royal Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa al-Thani weeks before its collapse a year ago.

Einarsson, who lives in Chelsea, west London, is thought to be the first head of a major European bank to be formally classed as a criminal suspect since the onset of the credit crisis.

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Hauksson’s investigators are understood to have eight other suspects who are connected to the failed bank official. Central figures include the bank’s chief executive Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, and shipping and oil entrepreneur Olafur Olafsson, a major Kaupthing customer and shareholder with contacts in Qatar.

The list is also believed to include Halldor Bjarkar Ludvigsson, who worked in Kaupthing’s loan department and now oversees the failed bank’s Nordic assets on behalf of creditors. Ludvigsson may later be reclassified as a witness, but his involvement is embarrassing for the bankruptcy protection committee that has responsibility for Kaupthing assets.

From the Observer

What was the saying about the guilty (or in this case suspects) cleaning up the mess?

Related posts:

1. Investigation into Kaupthing loans to UK retailer’s firm
2. Wikileaks: Serious Fraud Office urges Kaupthing whisteblowers to step forward
3. Al Thani’s Kaupthing Deal Under Scrutiny By The Special Prosecutioner
4. Guardian: Confidential Kaupthing corporate loan details leaked on the internet
5. Observer: Financial hurricanes shake the tax havens