Former poster boy of Icelandic boom charged with criminal offences

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/17/iceland-tycoon-jon-asgeir-johannesson-baugur


Jon Asgeir Johannesson once had a personal fortune esimated at £600m. Photograph: Jonathan Banks/Rex Features

Fallen Icelandic retail tycoon Jon Asgeir Johannesson, once one of the most powerful tycoons on the UK high street, has been charged in Reykjavik with criminal offences relating to allegations he exerted improper influence on the failed Icelandic bank that financed much of his business empire.

Johannesson – whose Baugur investment vehicle owned stakes in All Saints, House of Fraser, Hamleys, the Iceland frozen food chain and Woolworths – became the poster boy of Iceland's boom up until 2008 and his personal fortune was estimated at £600m. At the height of his success in 2007, his seemingly insatiable appetite for UK high street investments led to him being named the third most powerful retailer in Britain by Retail Week.

But Baugur, run from Johannesson's offices in Mayfair, came crashing down in the wake of Iceland's 2008 financial meltdown. Since then questions have been raised about whether the relationship between Johannesson's empire and Glitnir – one of three Icelandic banks that fell in the crash – had become too close.

Johannesson's Baugur group and linked businesses borrowed more than €1.5bn (£1.2bn) from Glitnir before the country's financial meltdown, making them by far the bank's biggest exposure to risk. Meanwhile, companies linked to him had large shareholdings in the bank.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Ah, now they're getting into the big guns

This was where Iceland's money was going - into the takeover bids by this man an a few like him. He had borrowed about $6,000 per Icelandic inhabitant from that one bank.