Landsbanki, chocolate and the dirty laundry
The new name on this website is Gísli Reynisson. He is one of the people who went abroad and came back rich after various enterprises in Eastern Europe. He was not know very well in Iceland until his untimely death at the age of 43 from illness. Sigrún Davíðsdóttir the excellent RUV.is journalist wrote an article about Gísli and I use her article as a reference.
Gísli studied in the USA and finished a phd in finance from Finland. While working for a Finnish investment firm he went to St. Petersburg in Russia, coincidently at the same time as Björgólfur Thor and his father Björgólfur Guðmundsson where starting to build up their empire there. That adventure has been told on this site before
Gisli soon moved to Riga in Latvia where he soon became a local investment favourite. His main business partner was Damants Vitols who had all the right connections in Latvia according to Sigrún Davíðsdóttir. This was just before the year 2000. Late year 2000 he founded the company Nordic Industries and a few other companies who among other things included a biscuit factory and a chocolate factory.
He also started the company Nordic Partners with Vitols and Bjarni Gunnarsson and Jón Þór Hjaltason. The company invested in Latvia by themselves as with others who did business there. Beside all the chocolate and biscuits, Gísli was into real estate. He bought old industrial housing and fixed them up to be sold or used again. Around 2004 Landsbanki was in partnership with Gísli, and Landsbanki Luxembourg had 53% in Nordic Partners according to Sigrún Davíðsdóttir. She also say‘s that those close to him claim that his status and wealth had increased dramatically after Landsbanki came into the equation.
Not everyone liked his influence and business practices in Latvia and just like Björgólfur Thor in Bulgaria, Gísli never moved unless he had bodyguards with him. That to me is a clear indication that he was in partnership with organised crime, for the simple reason that corruption and mafia influence are extremely high in Latvia, just as they are in other former Soviet states. It seems that Gísli was in the same business as Björgólfur, working for or with organised crime, laundering money and systematically running companies to the ground to clean the cash. Or was it just reckless stupidity that was the root of all this madness?
Gísli and Björgólfur jr and sr in St. Petersburg at the same time. It is not a coincidence that Landsbanki was very favourable to Gísli, and the bank more or less financed most if his escapades after 2004 without much collateral.
There is not much of evidence to support this, but knowing how things worked with Björgólfur Thor, where they were and with whom, it seems likelier than not.
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This article brings nothing new forward, I’m sorry to say, apart from completely undocumented allegations. I share the objective to reveal crimes committed during the Icelandic boom, but wild speculations and rumours won’t contribute to this cause.
What will contribute to the cause then?
What would you do? Say nothing like the Icelandic media?
Gisli did not move around with bodyguards in Latvia – that’s bullshit.. I knew him from businesses here in Riga..
This bit about the bodyguards came from Sigrún Davíðsdóttir the RUV journalist. Her information is usually pretty solid.
If you were involved with him, doing business with him, please tell me the truth according to your view.
It would be interesting to hear.
Gisli had no bodygards in Riga. He had only a driver. He did not go out a lot anyway. He went a few times to the sky bar at the Reval Hotel. I don’t think he was a bad person. But he was maybe just gready and lost his way of a normal life. Why is nobody asking about Bjarni and Jon Thor the other big shareholders of NP? They still do business! Is it really possible that they had no idea what Gisli was doing! Could it be that they were just naive??? You don’t really believe that? Or? Think about it! There was also a big problem betwen Gislis family and Jon Thors family which started during there vacation in ….. . Jon Thor also tried to ripp off Gislis widow shortly after Gisli passed away. Who could take over the “thinks” Gisli did??? Jon Thor??? Just think about it??? Maybe Jon Thor???
Olaf. Send me an email to nestor@nestormedia.net
We need to talk
CEO of Nordic Partners who started work january 2007 worked before for Landsbanki
he started january 2008, not 2007.
Is Jon Ingi Jonsson, managing director of Ice Jet maybe involved ? Could he be part of that ? Was he may moving huge amounts of cash out of iceland for Nordic Partners ?
How about Jon Ingi Jonsson , managing director of Ice jet ? Was he involved? Did he move huge amounts of cash out of Iceland ?
How about Jon Ingi Jonsson, managing director of Ice jet ? Did he maybe move huge amounts of cash out of Iceland for Nordic partners?
We need to dig into that Haukur.
Ingars. Thanks for the update.
[...] 68% Landsbanki, chocolate and the dirty laundry [...]
I totally agree with Simon Nyborg, undocumented allegations, in my opinion a lot of bullshit. I knew Gisli both personally and professionally from 1999 until his sad death. To contradict the article we went dining together more than 25 times in Riga, without bodyguards, just his driver Janis who waited patiently outside in the car. Probably from 2007 Gisli moved to fast and utilized too recklessly the access to lending capital from Landsbanki. But who in his position didn’t? Of course I can’t vouch for all his business activities but the ones I was involved in, Laima and Nordic Industries, I never saw any dubious activities. PS Gisli was not married, he lived in parthnership with Anna M
Raggi:
Why is this rumor as you call it so rife?
Why was almost every company he came close to bankrupt, why all these stupid loans and business deals? Why pay overprice for so many things.
Because he could? Or because he was a laundry machine for someone?
Or why was it?
As his friend, you will never admit anything, just claim that you can vouch for him on certain levels, but others you know nothing about.
This is not from me those rumors as you call them, they come from London, Baltics and other places. Things add up to this. Experienced journalists and their sources claim this to be true. Why is that?
Just like all the “jealousy, misunderstanding, and negativity” of those who did not believe blindly all the bullshit those Icelandic business men claimed to be true, have now come to light for the public. The whole house of cards has fallen.
Why should Gísli be any different?
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it most likely is a duck.
Undocumented… Do you have documents that can prove anything concerning this whole economic crash in Iceland?
Anything???
If there are no documents, then he must be clean and innocent.
Don’t be naive Raggi; or are you just like so many others still in denial and trying to save your own reputation and money???
I do not publish rumors and whispers unless I have reliable sources. And if it’s only “talk” instead of fist hand accounts or documented proofs that I have seen, I will call it rumors.
The things I know and have not published, simply because it would reveal the sources is pretty interesting, but for the sake of the people who came to me with the info, I cannot put them in the firing line.
Well I was in contact with Gisli in the late 90 ties and can only say that without a very strong personality, vitality and carisma no person can do what he did – and corruption , money laundering and mafia are anyway ruling politics, business, drugs ,prostitution worldwide and my view is that Gisli was not a bad person at all and may he rest in piece and bless his soul and keep his good sides in memory also !
This does not indicate that Gísli was a bad person, but the road to good intentions is often paved with dirty deeds.
When, as you correctly say Michael, the corruption, mafia and such are only a part of the game, then it is unavoidable to stay away from it.
The question is, how deep did he get, was it by choice or by threat?
Gísli Reynisson started lik a normal business man, but despite him being a good person and a nice guy most likely, his legacy when it comes to finance and the whole economic crash in Iceland, he messed up pretty bad. Sad fact, but fact no the less.
Thanks for the post Micheal