Ex KSF boss could profit from crisis book

The former chief executive of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (KSF) is set to profit from a book about his role in the failure of the Icelandic bank subsidiary.

Due to hit the shelves in October, Armann Thorvaldsson's book, How I Lived Iceland's Boom and Bust, promises to portray the glittering lifestyle of Iceland's top bankers before the bank collapsed last October, in a tale of excess and celebrity.

"Frozen Assets is a powerful story about big ambitions, big money and hubris," the cover declares.

While there is no indication the book will expose any secrets which contributed to the failure of KSF and KSFIOM, it is sure to enrage savers who have to rely on the return of their savings from the Isle of Man and UK governments.

Early payments have returned a quarter of KSFIOM depositors' savings, but thousands await the transfer of £193m out of the Isle of Man's reserves to speed up payments under the Depositors Compensation Schemes (DCS) which will return 75% of the trapped money.

The book's jacket reads: "This is the story of how one man, one bank and one country experienced world economic history."

It follows Thorvaldsson on his journey from Reykjavik to London, to Monte Carlo, where he "partied on yachts with celebrities" having seen the small brokerage house grow to a £6bn international bank.

He advised and financed Icelandic business moguls and set up relationships with big names such as Philip Green, Gordon Ramsay and the Candy Brothers.

The book is expected to include details of the lavish lifestyles of the bank's execs, with some sources saying contributions from celebrities such as Ramsay, could prove controversial.

Thorvaldsson says the lifestyle came "crashing to a halt" as Iceland was slammed with anti-terrorist laws in a "major diplomatic incident", leaving the country's economy in tatters.

The unveiling of the book has been greeted with revulsion by KSFIOMDAG, the action group campaigning for the 100% return of depositors' savings trapped in the Isle of Man subsidiary.

"It is distressing for depositors that people are choosing to make profit from their considerable and upsetting loss," says a KSFIOMDAG spokesperson.

She says no directors of the bank in Iceland, the UK or the Isle of Man have been asked to explain their actions by regulatory authorities, or if they have, the information has been hushed up.

"In a time when politicians are talking about openness and honesty this would be a very good place to start."

"We hope the forthcoming book exposes more political and legal misdeeds that shames the relevant regulatory and government authorities into supporting distressed depositors who almost one year on have lost all their money through no fault of their own," she adds.