Five bank directors have received prison sentences from the Supreme Court of Iceland for breach of fiduciary duty, embezzlement and market manipulation in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008, bringing the total up to 26, who are serving a combined total of 74 years behind bars.

Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, the former CEO of the failed bank Kaupthing, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for embezzlement. He is already serving 5½ years for market manipulation. Magnús Guðmundsson, the former CEO of Kaupthing Luxembourg, received a sentence of 18 months for embezzlement. He is already serving 4½ years formarket manipulation. He and Sigurðsson fraudulently transferred about $48 million to Marple Holdings, whose owner was sentenced along with them to six months for covering it up, and for buying Kaupthing bonds from the same company at an inflated price. Their wily aim, according to author Sigrún Davíðsdóttir, seems to have beento remove any risk of a falling bond price from the beneficial owners of these companies to the bank itself. Documents related to these companies seem to have been falsified so as to indicate that the deals had been done earlier than was the case.

Three other senior bankers, this time from the failed national bank Landsbanki, have also been sentenced for breach of fiduciary duty and market manipulation. These are Sigurjón Þ. Árnason, who used to be co-CEO and who received a three-year sentence; Steinþór Gunnarsson, the former director of brokerage who received 9 months; and Ms Elín Sigfúsdóttir, the former director of corporate lending who received 1½ years. They misrepresented some purchases of Landsbanki shares to reassure the market by making it look at though the foundering bank was receiving an equity injection.

Iceland deregulated its financial sector in 2001, paving the way for the crimes of the bank board members in 2008. There are now 26 very senior bankers and financiers in prison for crimes they committed in the run-up to the crisis.

Other jail sentences were handed out in February, to Sigurður Einarsson, Kaupthing's four Former Chairman, and Kaupthing investor Ólafur Ólafsson, for market manipulation. The latter was sentenced in absentia to 4½ years.

Meanwhile, US federal prosecutions for white collar crime have fallen to a 20-year low during this year so far. Many of the executives of banks receiving TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Programme) bailout funds actually received large bonuses.

When asked about how his country recovered from the global crisis of 2008, the Iclandic president said recently: "We were wise enough not to follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western financial world over the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the people and didn't introduce austerity measures like the ones you're seeing in Europe."