Letter to employees

We are very pleased to be able to inform you that the Icelandic Central Bank has finally admitted that its allegations against Samherji’s subsidiary, Kaldbakur ehf. were unfounded. Consequently the Central Bank has dropped the case, after an investigation lasting for nearly 60 months. It should be mentioned at this point that the case related to two bank transfers, one of which amounted to 1,500 NOK (ISK 19,700), cf. accompanying section from a letter written by the Governor of the Central Bank. The company had complied with the bank’s request and submitted all documentation required by the bank. Thus, these documents were not confiscated in the house search. On the basis of those documents, the bank submitted two charges to the police.

With this decision, the Central Bank has finally closed its cases against Samherji and affiliated companies. An unresolved issue, however, relates to a nullification case currently being conducted in the Reykjavík District Court with regard to an inappropriate fine imposed on Samherji by the Central Bank in September this year. We remain optimistic that this case, also, will be concluded as a complete victory for us. 

Although this conclusion has been clear to us for a long time, there is reason to be concerned because of the duration of the case and the approach chosen by the Central Bank. This clashes badly with the Bank’s reiterated declarations as to its culture of “compliance with the law” or “best administrative practice”.

Although we have always conducted our operation in good faith and in accordance with laws and regulations it has imposed a strain on all of us to have to defend ourselves against the insolent and unfair manner in which the Central Bank has treated our company and staff. It is a severely punitive measure to distribute worldwide the details of an unjustifiable house search and this act by the Bank has had its consequences for Samherji. It must be added, that a house search as such is something other and more serious than “a mere triviality” as the Governor of the Bank has suggested.  A house search has a serious traumatic impact upon those who are subjected to such a procedure. Those words by the Bank’s Governor, spoken 16 November 2016, are a telling example of the lack of judgement displayed by the Bank’s administration in this case. In this context, the large number of individuals should be remembered who have, through the years, been charged before the police by the Central Bank without those charges leading to convictions.

We hope people will be made to shoulder the responsibility for unfounded and hugely expensive operations in recent years and that public administration will be amended to prevent the repetition of such occurrences, whether they concern us or others. This we must fight for.

This has been a difficult court case, but we have faced it together. We extend our sincere thanks to all our employees for their support.

With best regards

Þorsteinn Már Baldvinsson
Kristján V. Vilhelmsson