1. In 2011, Thordarson contacted the FBI and offered to become an informant, turning over numerous internal WikiLeaks documents and hard drives in the process.
62 Facts About Sigurdur Thordarson
1. 2.
Sigurdur Thordarson was accused of using Julian Assange's name in legal documents.
3.
In June 2021, in an interview with Icelandic newspaper Stundin, Sigurdur Thordarson admitted that he had fabricated testimony he made against Julian Assange in the case in which the US sought Assange's extradition from the UK.
4.
Sigurdur Thordarson was a key witness whose testimony was crucial to the US case, according to numerous news organisations, including the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, The Hill, Der Spiegel and The Intercept.
5.
The Washington Post disagreed, writing that Sigurdur Thordarson's testimony was not part of the core allegations.
6.
Sigurdur Thordarson grew up middle-class in Reykjavik with a younger sister.
7.
Sigurdur Thordarson began hacking at age 12 and joined WikiLeaks in February 2010 when he was 17 years old and in high school.
8.
Sigurdur Thordarson went to university to study computer science and psychology, but says he was suspended for hacking.
9.
Sigurdur Thordarson began leaking information about the Icelandic banking system to the media in late 2009.
10.
Amongst other information that Sigurdur Thordarson admitted to have leaked in an interview with the Rolling Stone magazine was information about local businessman Karl Wernersson.
11.
Sigurdur Thordarson was the owner of the Milestone ehf that was the investment company from which Thordarson stole most of the information.
12.
Some speculate that information from Sigurdur Thordarson was used as evidence in that case, Sigurdur Thordarson leaked a classified report about one of the bigger aluminum plants in Iceland.
13.
Kristinn Hrafnsson thought Sigurdur Thordarson's leaks were "quite significant" and introduced him to Julian Assange.
14.
In 2013, Sigurdur Thordarson argued with Birgitta Jonsdottir on Twitter over the release of the loanbooks of the Glitnir Bank.
15.
Sigurdur Thordarson said she had no involvement, but he claimed that he had given her the files years ago.
16.
In 2009, Sigurdur Thordarson arrived at the offices of the Special Prosecutor, who investigated the bank collapse in Iceland in 2008.
17.
Sigurdur Thordarson reportedly gave them all the information he had on Milestone and other local business men, however instead of using some of the information obtained from Sigurdur Thordarson in investigation the investigators decided to sell the information.
18.
Sigurdur Thordarson began working for WikiLeaks as early as February 2010 and was fired in November 2011.
19.
Sigurdur Thordarson took part in moderating a chat room, vetting potential allies and sources.
20.
Reports state that Sigurdur Thordarson obtained many leaks that WikiLeaks later published, such as The Kissinger cables, The Syria Files, and the Stratfor emails and journalists said he was involved in delivering the leaked diplomatic cables to journalists.
21.
Sigurdur Thordarson sold T-shirts for the organisation and was the middle man in negotiations that led to WikiLeaks donating $15,000 to Chelsea Manning's defense fund.
22.
David Kushner reported that Sigurdur Thordarson provided Rolling Stone with over 1 terabyte of data about WikiLeaks, including thousands of pages of chat logs, videos, tapped phone calls, government documents.
23.
Kushner said that either Sigurdur Thordarson was the real deal or this was the biggest and most elaborate lie in the digital age, and that Assange's affidavit validated the importance of Siggi's documents.
24.
Sigurdur Thordarson embezzled $50,000 from a WikiLeaks online store that sold T-shirts, the money was paid into his own bank account and the official reason why he was fired.
25.
Sigurdur Thordarson said he used the funds to cover expenses he was owed by WikiLeaks and that the money went through his account with Assange's permission.
26.
Former WikiLeaks employee James Ball has said Sigurdur Thordarson reported directly to Assange and served as WikiLeaks' contact with hacker groups and Sigurdur Thordarson said Assange was with him when he asked Sabu to hack Icelandic websites and Stratfor on WikiLeaks' behalf.
27.
Bjarni Benediktsson the MP Sigurdur Thordarson leaked information about comments found on the computer.
28.
The reporter was said to be under investigation for receiving the information from Sigurdur Thordarson and manipulating Sigurdur Thordarson into leaking the information and placing the computer inside Parliament.
29.
Sigurdur Thordarson claimed that he was given files from someone who claimed to have recorded the MPs and that he offered to share them with Assange without checking the files.
30.
Sigurdur Thordarson was then summoned to the embassy, where he gave diplomatic staff official documents showing that he was who he claimed to be.
31.
Sigurdur Thordarson said he was motivated by a fear of the US judicial system and disagreement over how WikiLeaks acquired information.
32.
Sigurdur Thordarson said he gave them 1 TB of data, but "they didn't know about the extra 2TB" and that he refused to wear a wire to record Assange.
33.
In 2012, he met with the federal agents on multiple occasions, and was flown to Copenhagen where Sigurdur Thordarson was provided a room in a luxury hotel.
34.
Sigurdur Thordarson was allowed to return to Iceland after every meeting.
35.
Sigurdur Thordarson met with the FBI again in Washington DC and spent a couple of days with them there.
36.
The final meeting that Sigurdur Thordarson said took place with the FBI was during a course Sigurdur Thordarson was enrolled in at Aarhus in Denmark, teaching IT Security.
37.
Sigurdur Thordarson met with the agents there and handed over several hard drives he had copied from Assange and core WikiLeaks members.
38.
Sigurdur Thordarson said that in February 2013, he told Kristinn Hrafnsson, Ingi Ingason and a third WikiLeaks staff member that he was an FBI informant and gave them the 3TB trove.
39.
In 2013, Sigurdur Thordarson was summoned to the General Committee of the Icelandic Parliament after days of being discussed in the Parliament.
40.
The then-Minister of the Interior Ogmundur Jonasson said in Parliament that Sigurdur Thordarson was young and the FBI meant him to be a "spy" within the WikiLeaks organization.
41.
Sigurdur Thordarson is referred to as 'Teenager' in the indictment against Assange.
42.
In June 2021, in an interview with Icelandic newspaper Stundin, Sigurdur Thordarson recanted previous statements that he had made about Julian Assange, now claiming, for example, that Assange never instructed him to "hack or access" phone recordings of Icelandic MPs.
43.
Sigurdur Thordarson said that he misrepresented himself as an official representative of WikiLeaks.
44.
Several news organisations, including The Hill, Deutsche Welle, Der Spiegel, Berliner Zeitung and The Intercept described Sigurdur Thordarson as being a chief or key witness in the case.
45.
Over ten days after the Stundin article, The Washington Post said Sigurdur Thordarson's testimony was not used as the basis for charges but for information on Assange's contact with Chelsea Manning.
46.
In January 2010, when Sigurdur Thordarson was seventeen years old he was arrested on suspicion of stealing classified information from Milestone ehf.
47.
That case never reached the court system and Sigurdur Thordarson described his involvement in the Rolling Stone interview.
48.
Sigurdur Thordarson denied the charges but was found guilty in late 2013 and received 8 months in prison.
49.
Sigurdur Thordarson denied the charges and the case was later dismissed.
50.
Sigurdur Thordarson was later arrested in the summer of 2013 on charges of financial fraud.
51.
At that time, the WikiLeaks case was brought back up, and Sigurdur Thordarson was indicted on charges of embezzlement and financial fraud.
52.
In 2014, Sigurdur Thordarson was ordered to pay WikiLeaks 7 million ISK as well as being sentenced to prison for 2 years for embezzlement and financial fraud.
53.
In those cases Sigurdur Thordarson was ordered to pay the victims 15 million ISK, Sigurdur Thordarson received a two-year prison sentence in those cases.
54.
In 2012, Sigurdur Thordarson was arrested for allegedly having tried to blackmail a large Icelandic candy factory, but the case was later dismissed.
55.
Sigurdur Thordarson was believed to be a potential flight risk as well as being likely to sabotage the investigation against him and therefore placed in solitary confinement.
56.
Sigurdur Thordarson pled guilty to all counts and received a 3 year jail sentence.
57.
Sigurdur Thordarson was ordered to pay 8.6 million ISK in damages to his victims.
58.
In September 2021, on the day he returned to Iceland from a trip to Spain, Sigurdur Thordarson was arrested and imprisoned.
59.
Sigurdur Thordarson is being held indefinitely under an Icelandic law enabling the detention of individuals believed to be active in ongoing crimes.
60.
Sigurdur Thordarson recorded a video of him and the victim, which the police came into possession of and led to them learning more.
61.
The film The Fifth Estate, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange, features a character based on Sigurdur Thordarson's played by Jamie Blackley.
62.
Sigurdur Thordarson is mentioned in Domscheit-Berg's book, during his time with WikiLeaks he reportedly used the handles PenguinX, Singi201 and "Q".