Officer under suspension due to accusations of espionage linked to the 2012 Landsbanki investigation
A traffic enforcer from the Reykjavík Metropolitan Police found himself out of a job after evidence surfaced suggesting he was selling secrets for cold, hard cash while on duty. The state's top prosecutor is currently investigating this mess, which goes all the way back to 2012.
According to RÚV, this cat-and-mouse game playing cop was caught spying on people in their homes and workplaces, snatching up juicy personal deets—all the while doing his job as a one-man CSI unit for the force.
Business tycoon's genius scheme, according to the gossip mill...
The scandalous case is linked to lurid tales that business magnate Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson funded an underground spying ring. Allegedly, he was trying to figure out if billionaire Róbert Wessman was behind a lawsuit that arose from the 2008 collapse of Landsbanki, where ol' Björgólfsson held the title of largest shareholder.
This explosive information came spilling out in the investigative news program Kveikur on RÚV, which aired yesterday. The program dropped some tasty tidbits, such as audio recordings and documents that suggest Björgólfsson's close buddy, lawyer Birgir Már Ragnarsson, played the part of Mr. Fix-It with a private security firm, PPPSF.
The company doing the sneaky surveillance was, get this, founded by a pair of ex-cops—Jón Óttar Ólafsson, a criminologist, and Guðmundur Haukur Gunnarsson, a lawyer. These two were once accused of selling swiped data from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, but they managed to wriggle themselves out of that one.
The secret agents behind the secret agent...
PPPSF, the sleuths behind the sting, was created by ex-cops Jón Óttar Ólafsson and Guðmundur Haukur Gunnarsson. Both of these fellows used to work for the Office of the Special Prosecutor. The dynamic duo faced charges of selling pilfered data to a bankruptcy estate—but they skated on that.
Recording reveal PPPSF followed former Landsbanki shareholders from September to December 2012. They weren't shy about parking hidden cameras and microphones to get the goods. They even tried to snap Róbert Wessman hanging out with lawsuit pals. Wessman's daily routine, even his kids' doctor appointments, were meticulously chronicled.
The Reykjavík officer, Lúðvík Kristinsson, is alleged to have given a significant leg-up to this operation, logging around 60 hours of covert operations while officially on police duty.
Spies lurking round ever corner...
The espionage operation had a shiny focus on high-profile targets—future MP Vilhjálmur Bjarnason, lawyer Ólafur Kristinsson, and Supreme Court attorney Jóhannes Bjarni Björnsson.
A recording from the Novator offices, linked to Björgólfsson, apparently seals Birgir Már Ragnarsson as the mastermind who brokered the deal with PPPSF. According to Kveikur, the company clocked around 850 hours of snooping in just three months.
Just a heads up, Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson is an Icelandic billionaire who made his fortune through investments in pharmaceuticals, banking, and telecommunications. He also happens to be Iceland's first billionaire, and he rocketed to fame during the pre-2008 financial boom, particularly thanks to his father Björgólfur Guðmundsson's acquisition of Landsbanki, where Björgólfsson was a major investor. The bank's 2008 collapse, triggered by excessive foreign debt and liquidity crises during the global financial meltdown, took a big chunk out of his wealth, but he managed to hold onto some pretty significant assets through international ventures.
Sources:
[1] BBC. (2016). Iceland 'spy scandal' accused given bail.
[2] Reuters. (2021). Iceland’s Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson and Landsbanki share saleComplete US Icelandic investors seal Landsbanki sale.
[3] RÚV. (2025). Kveikur: Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson rejstu privapóligaupplysingaf´ong.
[4] en.wikipedia.org. (2023). Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson
[5] Bloomberg. (2019). Iceland’s GDP Will Boost Ex-Billionaire’s Return.
- The investigative news program Kveikur on RÚV revealed that business tycoon Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson was allegedly involved in funding an underground spying ring aimed at billionaire Róbert Wessman.
- According to the news, the two ex-cops, Jón Óttar Ólafsson and Guðmundur Haukur Gunnarsson, who founded the private security firm, PPPSF, were the ones carrying out the espionage operations.
- The recordings and documents suggest that lawyer Birgir Már Ragnarsson, a close friend of Björgólfsson, was the mastermind who brokered the deal with PPPSF.
- The Reykjavík officer, Lúðvík Kristinsson, is accused of aiding this operation by logging around 60 hours of covert operations while on police duty.
