Court sentences Sverrir Einar Eiríksson for major tax offences

Reykjavík District Court has sentenced Sverrir Einar Eiríksson to 24 months in prison, with 21 months suspended, for major tax offences. The court also ordered him to pay 104,748,215 Icelandic krónur to the state, mbl.is reported.

The judgment was handed down on 9 October and published on Monday. Eiríksson must pay the fine within four weeks of the judgment’s publication or serve 360 days in prison.

He was convicted over the operation of four limited liability companies. The charges concerned failures to file value-added tax returns and pay VAT collected or due, as well as failures to submit withholding tax returns and pay public charges deducted from employees’ wages. The alleged offences totalled nearly 60 million krónur.

Eiríksson denied the charges and argued, among other things, that the investigation was inadequate and that authorities’ actions had contributed to the companies’ insolvency. The court rejected his arguments, finding that the investigation had not breached the requirement for an impartial inquiry and that the offences described in the indictment had been proved.

The court said the offences involved substantial sums, continued for about three years and qualified as major offences under the law. It also noted that Eiríksson was convicted in 2022 and given a 10-month suspended sentence for breaches of VAT and public withholding tax laws. That sentence was activated and combined with the new sentence.