Sigurður Einarsson (born 19 September 1960) is an Icelandic economist, businessman, and one-time chairman of the failed bank Kaupþing, and has been called 'Iceland's most controversial banker'.
[2][3] In a statement which he issued on October 9, 2008, he attributed the collapse to Kaupþing to a 'chain of events which no-one foresaw or could have controlled' ('atburðarás[ar] sem enginn sá fyrir eða gat haft stjórn á').
[4] The UK newspaper The Observer reported that Sigurður, together with other employees of Kaupþing, were suspected of criminal conduct,[5] and in March 2013, he was indicted in Reykjavík 'with orchestrating five large-scale market manipulation conspiracies', in what was the largest prosecution related to the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis so far.
[6] Sigurður is the son of Einar Ágústsson, one-time vice chairman of the Progressive Party, member of the Icelandic parliament and foreign minister, and his wife Þórun Sigurðardóttir.
Described by his one-time junior colleague Ármann Þorvaldsson, Sigurður In December 2013, Einarsson was sentenced to five years imprisonment for his involvement in market manipulation before the collapse of Kaupþing bank, by the Reykjavik district court.