Björgólfur Guðmundsson

Björgólfur Guðmundsson (born January 2, 1941 in Reykjavík ) is an Icelandic entrepreneur. He was the chairman and owner of West Ham United FC . He is the second Icelandic businessman to become a billionaire - his son Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson was the first to do so. Björgólfur was once the majority owner and chairman of the now nationalized Icelandic bank Landsbanki , the second largest company in all of Iceland. In March 2008, Forbes Magazine named him the 1014th richest man in the world, with assets of $ 1.1 billion. In December of the same year, Forbes Magazine corrected his fortune to $ 0, and on July 31, 2009, he was declared bankrupt by an Icelandic court - his debt at the time was nearly $ 800 million.

Björgólfur, a former soccer player, furniture maker and law student, was also involved in philanthropy . In the 1990s, he was sentenced to 12 months in prison for falsifying his company's books. He then went to Russia, successfully built up another company and, after selling it, came back to Iceland, where he is now involved in various business areas: shipping, publishing, communications, the food industry and real estate.

Young years and marriage

Björgólfur's parents were Guðmundur Pétur Ólafsson (1911–1979) and Kristín Davíðsdóttir. Björgólfur has an older brother, Davíð, and sisters. Björgólfur graduated from the Commercial College of Iceland in 1962 and has been a member of the Independence Party since then .

He married his wife Margrét Þóra Hallgrímsson in 1963, adopted the children from their previous marriages to Thor Philip Axel Jensen and George Lincoln Rockwell and had a son with her, Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson .

From 1962 to 1977 Björgólfur was first the founder, then the managing director of Dósagerðin hf., From 1977 to 1986 the managing director of Hafskip and also responsible for all subsidiaries of the shipping company in Europe and the USA.

Hafskip affair

The shipping company Hafskip was the main competitor for the established shipping company Eimskip . In the beginning there was enough work for both shipping companies, as they took over transports for the American soldiers stationed in Iceland. However, when an American company began to cover the same routes, Hafskip got into a swim. Björgólfur took out several loans to keep business going. In spite of this, he could no longer pay his bills in the early 1980s and fell into arrears with his bank (Útvegsbankinn).

Björgólfur was then charged and sentenced to 12 months in prison for irregularities in his bookkeeping. If you follow the interpretation of Illugi Jökulsson, who wrote a book about the Hafskip affair, this punishment was less about getting a rival of Eimskip (who later took over Hafskip) out of the way, but rather an attempt the Progressive Party to benefit from the case of a man so obviously linked to the Independence Party. These events had a considerable effect on Björgólfur and his son, and both later stated that their subsequent economic activities were a kind of revenge on their tormentors at the time, and in doing so they tried to restore their reputation. One of the steps Björgólfur took to restore his reputation in the years that followed was to found a successful alcoholic rehab clinic in Reykjavík.

From 1986 to 1991 Björgólfur was the managing director and owner of Icestar Ltd. in Copenhagen and worked as a consultant for the “AMA Agencies” in London, where he was available for questions about the shipping industry.

Beverage industry in Saint Petersburg

In 1991, following the Hafskip affair, Björgólfur began managing the brewery and beverages division of Pharmaco.

When Pharmaco was forced to sell underutilized filling machines in the early 1990s, Björgólfur took the opportunity and founded Bravo Brewery in St. Petersburg with Magnús Þorsteinsson and his son Björgólfur Thor. This company was crowned with success, so that the parties involved were later able to sell it to Heineken for $ 400 million . After the successful sale in 2002 Björgólfur returned to Iceland and invested his profit there and in other countries. During his time in Russia, Björgólfur was associated with the Russian mafia several times.

Boom years: Chairman of the Landsbanki

→ Main article : Landsbanki

At the end of 2002, Samson, owned by Björgólfur Thor Bjþorgólfsson and Björgólfur Guðmundsson, took over 45% of the shares in Landsbanki , Iceland's second largest bank , as part of a controversial privatization . When the new management was announced in February 2003, Björgólfur Guðmundsson was appointed Managing Director.

During this time Björgólfur became famous and popular for his charity, both for his own contributions with his wife Þóra, and for contributions from the Landsbanki. The largest donations went to the Icelandic National Theater so they could build a new stage, the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra , Listahátíð í Reykjavík , Icelandic Opera, Knattspyrnusamband Íslands , the University of Iceland and the University of Akureyri . After the financial crisis of 2008, it turned out that this massive support of the intellectuals silenced many critical voices about the banking boom and thus helped to make the collapse of it possible.

Banking crisis and personal bankruptcy

After the economy collapsed in 2008, Björgólfur Guðmundsson was made a major culprit by the Icelandic media. In the course of establishing the truth, the Icelandic government is now planning to investigate his actions.

When Björgólfur filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, it went down as the most serious personal bankruptcy in history.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Forbe's Rich List 2008
2. ↑ Billionaire Blowups of 2008 ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Icelandic bank chief in £ 500m of hot water
4. ^ ^{A b} Jamie Jackson: He's the real thing , The Observer. September 2, 2007. Accessed August 22, 2018. 
5. ↑ David Conn, The real power behind West Ham , The Guardian. November 29, 2006. Retrieved September 12, 2008. 
6. ↑ visir.is mbl.is
7. ↑ Ingi Freyr Vilhjálmsson: Hamskiptin: Þegar allt varð falt á Íslandi . Veröld, Reykjavík 2014, p. 53.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Björgólfur Guðmundsson . ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Stúdentafagnaður 2012 . 
9. ^ Roger Boyes: Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island . Bloomsbury, New York 2009, pp. 63-64
10. ^ Roger Boyes: Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island . Bloomsbury, New York 2009, pp. 64-65.
11. ^ Roger Boyes: Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island . Bloomsbury, New York 2009, p. 65.
12. ^ Roger Boyes: Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island . Bloomsbury, New York 2009, pp. 64-66.
13. ^ Roger Boyes: Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island . Bloomsbury, New York 2009, p. 66.
14. ^ Roger Boyes: Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island . Bloomsbury, New York 2009, pp. 67-68.
15. ↑ Who is Thor Bjorgolfsson, Iceland's lone billionaire? . Invest in Greece. January 20, 2006. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
16. ↑ Ingi Freyr Vilhjálmsson: Hamskiptin: Þegar allt varð falt á Íslandi . Veröld, Reykjavík 2014, p. 54.
17. ^ Ian Griffiths: Next-generation Viking invasion - They've got the cash to buy big UK groups like M&S. But where does it come from? , The Guardian. June 16, 2005. Retrieved April 26, 2010. 
18. ↑ Guðmundur Magnússon, Thorsararnir: auður - völd - örlög. Almenna bókafélagið, Reykjavík 2005, p. 354. Questions about Landsbanki's new shareholder. Euromoney magazine
19. ↑ IcelandReview - Online
20. ↑ Guðmundur Magnússon, Thorsararnir: auður - völd - örlög. Almenna bókafélagið, Reykjavík 2005, p. 354
21. ↑ Ingi Freyr Vilhjálmsson: Hamskiptin: Þegar allt varð falt á Íslandi . Veröld, Reykjavík 2014, pp. 51–67; 261-68 (at p. 59).
22. ↑ Ingi Freyr Vilhjálmsson: Hamskiptin: Þegar allt varð falt á Íslandi . Veröld, Reykjavík 2014, pp. 67–82, 165–206.
23. ↑ Robert Jackson: The Big Chill . In: Financial Times . November 15, 2008.
24. ↑ Thorvaldur Gylfason: Iceland: How Could This Happen? (PDF) CESifo Working Paper no.4605, Category 6: Fiscal Policy, Macroeconomics and Growth, January 2014, p. 9.

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .