Bjarni Benediktsson leader of the Independence Party and acting Prime Minister.
New research made by newspapers Stundin and The Guardian, and Reykjavik Media shows that Bjarni Benediktsson, acting Prime Minister and leader of the Independence Party, sold his assets in Glitnir bank a few hours before the financial collapse in late 2008. During that time he had sat in a meeting as a parliamentarian regarding the serious state of the bank. By this, he averted his own financial crisis in the crash. This is reported by Kjarninn.is and Stundin.is
Bjarni told the Glitnir bank manager what the Financial Supervisory Authority (FME) was going to do on the day the Icelandic Government instituted an emergency law which enabled the FME to take control over financial institutions.
The research also shows that Bjarni began to sell his stock in Glitnir for about 120 million ISK two days before he had a meeting with the Glitnir‘s bank manager as a parliamentarian.
His last transaction on his assets in Glitnir happened on the day of the financial crash, 6 October 2008, even though the FME closed all stock exchange at noon that day. Bjarni had sent an email to the bank on 2 October asking for the transaction to take place, but not until 6 October, which was accepted.