Education
He graduated from the University of Iceland in 1994 with a degree in business administration.
He graduated from the University of Iceland in 1994 with a degree in business administration.
Later the same year he joined the Asset Management Division of Kaupthing (later to become Kaupthing Bank after uniting with Búnaðarbanki Íslands). Hreiðar Már was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Kaupthing in 1998. He served as Managing Director of Kaupthing New York since it was founded in March 2000 until late 2001.
He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Kaupthing Bank in the beginning of 2003.
Kaupthing was nationalized by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority in October 2008. On 6 May 2010, Hreiðar Már was placed under arrest, by a special prosecutor, on suspicion of falsifying documents, embezzlement, breach of trading laws, and market manipulation.
On 8 May 2010, Hreiðar Már was placed in solitary custody for 12 days by a Reykjavik court. On 12 December 2013, Hreiðar Már was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his part in a market manipulation case involving Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad al-Thani"s purchase of a 5.1% share in Kaupthing Bank weeks before the bank collapsed in October 2008.
This was, at the time, the heaviest sentence for financial fraud in Iceland"s history.
The verdict was appealed to the Supreme court which upheld the previous verdict on 12 February 2015.