REYKJAVIK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The estate of a bankruptIcelandic bank said on Friday it had settled a dispute with aQatari sheikh which stemmed from a deal the sheikh made to buyshares in the bank just before it collapsed in 2008.
All three of Iceland's top banks collapsed under big debtswhen the global credit crunch struck in late 2008.
Weeks before the collapse, one of the banks, Kaupthing,announced that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad al Thani ofQatar had bought 5.01 percent of its shares in aconfidence-boosting move. But a parliamentary commission latersaid the shares were bought with a loan from Kaupthing itself.
The winding-up committee of the Kaupthing estate revealedfor the first time in a statement on Friday that it had takenlegal proceedings against the sheikh and subsequently settledwith him.
It provided no details of the settlement with the sheikh norwhy it had taken action against him. It said only that legalproceedings in Iceland against al Thani had been discontinued."All other terms of the settlement remain confidential," itadded.
No one at the committee was available to comment.
An Icelandic newspaper has reported the winding-up committeewanted to get back some of the loans made for the shares.
The parliamentary commission which investigated the bankingmeltdown said in April 2010 that Kaupthing lent money tocompanies owned by al Thani to buy the Kaupthing shares.
Barclays (BARC)