Members of Sigur Ros have been charged with tax evasion, The Associated Press reports. Following a three-year investigation of the finances of Jon Thor Birgisson, Georg Holm, Kjartan Sveinsson and Orri Pall Dyrason (who is no longer in the band following sexual assault allegations), the District Prosecutor issued an indictment on Thursday (3/28) accusing them of “submitting incorrect tax returns from 2011 to 2014, evading a total of 151 million Icelandic Krona ($1.2 million).”
Band members say that the fault lies with their former accountant, who they also said was at fault for tax evasion charges they were served with a year ago, and later cleared for.
More from Associated Press:
Assets of the four, including apartments and houses worth $6.5 million, will be frozen pending trial, authorities said. Two-thirds of the assets belong to Sigur Ros frontman Jon Thor Birgisson, who currently lives in Los Angeles.
Birgisson is charged with evading about $240,000 in income taxes and another $105,000 in taxes on his investment income.
According to the prosecutor, other band members — Georg Holm, Kjartan Sveinsson and Orri Pall Dyrason — allegedly neglected reporting a total of $1.6 million in income, of which they should have paid about $725,000 in taxes.
In Iceland, general income tax for high earners is 46 percent.
Holm and Dyrason are also accused of evading about $150,000 in taxes on investments.
Members of Sigur Ros made a statement to Pitchfork about the charges:
Individual tax returns for the members of Sigur Rós in Iceland have been under investigation for 2011-2014. Last December the Internal Revenue Directorate accepted all numbers and arguments sent in on behalf of the band for this period, and therefore no disagreement remains between them and the Icelandic tax authorities. However, the Reykjavík district prosecutor has decided to indict the members of the band for incorrect tax returns during the same years. The members of the band regret that this matter needs to go before the courts, but at the same time they hope that their point of view will be understood. They have always had the full intention to comply with their financial and tax obligations and they thought they always did.
Pitchfork also shared a statement from defense lawyer Bjarnfredur Olafsson:
The members of the band are musicians and not experts in bookkeeping or international trade—let alone delivering tax returns and related data. That is why they hired internationally recognized experts to take care of the books and all necessary reports to the Icelandic authorities. But it has come to light that wrong returns were delivered to the internal revenue and/or they were delivered too late. At the same time the members of the band thought these matters were in order and in the hand of professionals. It will now be up to the district prosecutor to prove that the individual members of the band were grossly negligent in filing their tax returns. In light of the facts of the case I cannot see how that can be done and therefore it is disappointing that the district prosecutor has decided to indict them.”
A court date has not currently been set.