Iceland review - 2016, Page 42

40 ICELAND REVIEW
THE INTERVIEW
Jóhannes Kr. Kristjánsson
is the Icelandic investigative journalist behind
the recent viral video, featuring Iceland’s
then prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. The awkward
interview centered on the PM’s connections to an offshore company,
revealed in the Panama Papers, and ultimately led to his resignation.
Zoë Robert asks Jóhannes about the revelations,
what he learnt during his months of research, and
the state of the media in Iceland.
At 6 pm on Sunday April 3, half the
Icelandic nation—98 percent of
television viewers that evening,
according to a Gallup poll—tune in
to Iceland’s state broadcaster, RÚV, to
watch a special edition of news analysis
program Kastljós. The suspense is pal-
pable: something big will be revealed.
We know it relates to Icelandic politi-
cians and offshore companies, but few
could have predicted the extent of the
revelations and the fallout. The nation
watches as Prime Minister Sigmundur
Davíð Gunnlaugsson is asked whether
he has links to an offshore company in
a tax haven. He insists that any such
possible links would have been through
one of the Icelandic companies he has
worked for, stressing that he has never
hidden any of his assets.
The interview comes to a head
when Icelandic investigative journalist
Jóhannes Kr. Kristjánsson, of Reykjavik
Media, and his Swedish colleague, Sven
Bergman of SVT (Swedish public ser-
vice television), confront Sigmundur
about his and his wife’s ownership of
company Wintris Inc., registered in the
British Virgin Islands. After responding
that the company has been listed on his
tax return from the beginning and insist-
ing he was not obliged to declare it in
parliament, Sigmundur Davíð abruptly
stands up and walks out. The PM’s han-
dling of the interview caused ridicule in
Iceland and abroad.
Sigmundur Davíð sold his share in
Wintris to his wife, Anna Sigurlaug
Pálsdóttir, for one dollar in December
2009, eight months after taking parlia-
mentary office. His links to the compa-
ny were revealed in the unprecedented
leak of more than 11 million documents
from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca,
which connected numerous current
and former heads of state, oligarchs,
mafia bosses and sports personalities to
offshore companies in tax havens. The
revelations about the PM were particu-
larly scandalous because the company
had registered a claim of around ISK
500 million (USD 4 million at today’s
exchange rates) against the assets of the
bankrupt estates of the failed Icelandic
banks, and Sigmundur Davíð failed to
mention, when negotiating a bailout deal
with foreign creditors, that his wife was
herself among the ‘foreign’ creditors.
Amid intense pressure, including what
was reportedly the largest public protest
in Icelandic history, in which 22,000
people demonstrated in front of parlia-
ment, he resigned as prime minister two
days after the interview’s broadcast (read
more about the story on pages 34-38).
In contrast to this fast sequence of
events, the fateful interview was long
in the making. Jóhannes and data jour-
nalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson, who in
2015 started their own media compa-
ny, Reykjavik Media, spent months
working on the story in collaboration
with the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Jóhannes
also co-founded and sits on the board
of the Icelandic Center for Investigative
Journalism.
PHOTOS BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON.