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Sigur Rós responds to accusations of tax-fraud: Will pay every penny of taxes owed

By Staff

Sigur Rós The band blames errors commited by a former accountant for the irregularities which have landed the band in the middle of a major tax-fraud scandal. Photo/Getty

Earlier today the story broke that the members of the band Sigur Rós are under investigation for massive tax-fraud. The Reykjavík Sheriff's Department has frozen assets worth millions of dollars to ensure that all back taxes are paid in full. The band members maintain that the whole affair is a giant misunderstanding, stressing that they intend to pay every single penny of taxes owed.

Read more: Sigur Rós members under investigation for massive tax-fraud

Georg Holm, who plays bass in Sigur Rósar, told the local newspaper Fréttablaðið, which first broke the story, that the band members are "devastated" that they are suspected of wrongdoing and tax evasion. He claims that the affair most likely boils down to accounting error or failure by the band's former auditor.

"Our auditing was done by an accountant with PWC. He left PWC to set up his own accounting firm, and we decided to follow him, as he had handled all our affairs, knew them like the back of his hand, and we had a very good relationship with him. None of us are lawyers or accountants, and we were under the impression that all our affairs were in order."

As we reported earlier today, all three members of Sigur Rós are under investigating for tax evasion.

"The whole affair is just awful, and we were devastated to learn of the investigation," Georg told Fréttablaðið. "But as soon as we realized what had happened, we took steps to set things right." The band members have already begun paying back taxes they owe.

"We will repay this debt and do our best to find out what went wrong. We trusted our accountant and thought everything was in order, but then found out the opposite was true."