Weekend Round-Up: True Grit

This weekend was quite the homage to cowboys the world over.

To start things off, former chairman of Kaupthing Sigurður Einarsson hired himself Ian Burton as his attorney, a man who is apparently the go-to lawyer for millionaires being investigated for fraud.

In a brief interview with Vísir, Burton had some choice words for special prosecutor Ólafur Þór Hauksson:

"It seems to me that this prosecutor wants to show the public that he's a tough guy and he can lock people up. This prosecutor isn't interested in discussion. He wants to behave like John Wayne in a cowboy movie."

Comparisons to John Wayne are pretty interesting. It's similar to Sigurður's remark that the prosecutor's recent arrests were "a drama ... being put on to soothe the anger of the nation." In both cases, it's hyperbolic language saying that Ólafur Þór is reckless and not behaving realisitically.

This is despite the fact that the Special Investigative Commission (SIC) report on the economic collapse was pretty damning when it came to Kaupthing, and Ólafur Þór would be negligent not to go after them. And if anything, Kaupthing's actually the safer bet, prosecution wise. A political investigation, which could begin this fall if the parliamentary committee decides to press charges against anyone, is going to be fairly protracted and possibly ugly, as political trials anywhere often are.

To imply that Ólafur Þór is somehow acting recklessly right now is transparently comical. But Burton also told Vísir that he could send Sigurður to Iceland with just one call from Ólafur Þór, and added that the special prosecutor was welcome to question Sigurður in London. Of course, the Minister of Justice contends that Britain and Iceland do have an extradition treaty, so Burton's offers might go unheeded.

My laughter then turned to blind rage when it was announced that Magma Energy - the Canadian company that already owns 46% of Iceland's third largest energy company, HS Orka, is set to buy the 52% stake that another Icelandic company - Geysir Green Energy - already has of HS Orka. This means Magma Energy will own 98% of the company.

It also means that Magma Energy CEO Ross Beaty pretty much lied when he told the Grapevine last fall: "I went to Iceland earlier this year and looked at opportunities and it seemed that HS Orka could benefit from capital infusion, reorganisation of its shareholding to stronger positions and it looked like there was an opportunity to do something that would help us and help HS Orka and, in the big picture, help the country of Iceland."

Because what helps a country more than moving a public utility into the private sector, where 98% of revenues leave the country altogether? That's right - Iceland is pretty much set to make the exact same mistake California made when it comes to privatizing energy, only the owners won't even live in this country.

Right now, the government is reviewing the sale, spurred on by Leftist-Green MP Ögmundur Jónasson, who quite correctly pointed out that selling natural resources is sorta kinda, you know, completely contradictory to the entire Leftist-Green raison d'etre. We'll see how that goes.

The cherry on top of this weekend was to wake up this morning and see the front page of Fréttablaðið, where it was reported that pharmaceutical giant Roche is considering boycotting the sale of medication to Iceland. The reason? Apparently we don't charge people enough money for their medication. Roche CEO Robin Turner said, in part, "It is obvious that if drug prices go below a certain limit, my company will have no other choice but to stop selling medication in Iceland."

Keep in mind that Roche made about $49 billion in 2009 alone, and Iceland's pharmaceutical market is about 300,000 people, so even if Turner's complaint was true, it's not like Iceland is exactly bleeding out Roche. Roche also makes a lot of cancer medication. But hey, you can't let people in a depressed economy have a bit of a break and get well if it means your profits might take a miniscule dip that probably totals the amount of money Turner spends on vacation.

Weekends are supposed to be relaxing. I demand a refund!