Rowland and Straumur
Everyone who follows Icelandic affairs will be interested in the activities of the Rowlands, David and Jonathan, who took over Kaupthing Luxembourg, turned it into Banque Havilland and who are now Kaupthing’s administrators through the ‘bad debt’ structure Pillar Securitisation.
A further insight into earlier contacts with Iceland, in this case Straumur Investment bank, have transpired through a court case in London. As Rowena Mason has reported in the Telegraph, Jonathan Rowland is now being sued by Straumur. Three years ago, shares in a company called Xg Technology were transferred to Rowland but the £2m payment never arrived. According to the Rowland camp it turned out that sale of these shares was restricted, Rowland hadn’t been informed and they were consequently worth a lot less than the sum demanded. Straumur now claims that the money is owed by Rowland, no matter what.
There is a whole story out there about Xg – they claimed they had developed a sensational radio technology that has never been realised and their value has plummeted from earlier heights. There is a blog with Xg stories – it makes a riveting read and goes some years back. One of Xg’s directors is an Icelander called Palmi Sigmarsson who was connected to a Swedish company, Spectra, also operating in Iceland but without any apparent success.
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