Sigurdur Thordar­son, a WikiLeaks volunteer tur­ned FBI infor­m­ant and presu­med witness in the U.S. govern­ment's case aga­inst WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, is being sued in Iceland for submitt­ing falsified documents, Stundin has lear­ned. Thordar­son's lawyer claims his signat­ure was for­ged on fil­ings to the tax aut­horities to indicate pay­ments of star­t­ing capital for two real estate companies.

The lawyer, Gud­mundur St. Ragn­ars­son, signed a document for Thordar­son's company, Regnum, certifying capital of 500 thousand ISK, app­rox­ima­tely 3,900 U.S. doll­ars. He claims his signat­ure was for­ged on documents filed five days later to Icelandic tax aut­horities, claiming a star­t­ing capital of 50 million ISK, or 388,000 USD, in the company and again in a second company, Robus, for a total of 100 million ISK, or 776,000 USD.

Two of Thordar­son's business partners told Stundin that he duped them about the incoming capital and for­ged the signat­ures in order to complete a real estate deal which never ended up tak­ing place.

Thordar­son, nicknamed "Siggi the hacker" for his role in several high profile leaks, is invol­ved with six legal entities now, some of which are reg­istered in famous office build­ings in Reykja­vík, but with no physical presence there. In 2014, Thordar­son was sentenced to two years in pri­son for fraud after charging goods and services to a company using a fake name. He was ordered to repay 15 million ISK, the equivalent of 116 thousand USD, with almost half the amount to be repa­yed to WikiLeaks.

Thordar­son was also sentenced to 8 months in pri­son in 2013 for soliciting sex from a minor. In 2015 he was sentenced to three years in pri­son for sim­ilar conduct towards nine boys, most of them aged 15 to 17, offer­ing them money, cars and properties in exchange for sex. He was rel­e­a­sed in 2016. Since then, he has officially changed his name, remov­ing his middle name Ingi from the national reg­istry.

Linked to six legal entities

The business partners at Regnum and Robus say that they've been help­ing Thordar­son rea­djust to society since his return from pri­son. A psychiatric evalution carried out in connection with his fraud case stated that he was sociopathic and was una­ble to experience regret or shame.

Thordar­son's partners and Ragn­ars­son say that no one was harmed by Thordar­son's actions and that no business was ever conducted on behalf of the companies. Now they are in the process of fil­ing correct documents to rectify the false claim of 100 million ISK in star­t­ing capital. "When that is done I will sue and that's in progress now," says Ragn­ars­son.

"When that is done I will sue and that's in progress now"

Thordar­son is connected to four more legal entities, most of which were founded or acquired by him in the last year. Two of them are reg­istered at nota­ble office build­ings in Reykja­vík. One of the companies is now in bankruptcy proceedings and Thordar­son's board alt­ernate is another man who has been sentenced for sexual abuse of minors.

Interviewed by U.S. prosecutors in 2019

Despite only being 28 years old, Thordar­son has been in the public eye for over a decade. He first came to prominence as a teenager after leak­ing documents related to the Icelandic financial crash of 2008. He became a volunteer for WikiLeaks, but tur­ned paid infor­m­ant for the FBI. In 2011, FBI agents came to Iceland to interview him and he supp­lied them with information from inside WikiLeaks. At the time, U.S. aut­horities had started investigat­ing Assange.

Last year, The Washington Post stated that prosecutors interviewed Thordar­son again in 2019 and subsequently broa­dened their case aga­inst Assange, claiming that he asked Thordar­son to illegally obtain recordings of phone conversations between politicians in a for­eign country. The Icelandic govern­ment is also said to have agreed to U.S. aut­horities creating fake classified documents for an infor­m­ant to feed to Assange. Aslaug Arna Sig­ur­bjorns­dottir, Iceland's mini­ster of justice, has stated that the govern­ment did not authorize such activity.