The Woman Digging Into Iceland's Crisis

A tiny blond Frenchwoman has been imported by Iceland to sniff out the suspected criminal activity that might have contributed to the virtual bankrupting of the country during the financial crisis. Eva Joly is one of the very few investigators who have had any luck bringing white-collar crooks to justice—her investigation into French oil giant Elf brought her international renown in the ‘90s. Now, the little island nation has asked her to unearth any wrongdoing in one of the biggest dramas of the credit crisis. Joly’s presence was immediately felt in Reykjavik, reports the Financial Times in a profile of the corporate-crime crusader. In the ‘80s, Iceland broke from the welfare-orientation of its fellow Scandinavian countries and became a laboratory for unfettered capitalism. Joly, who was born in Norway, “seems to relish the chance to expose the flaws in a system alien to both her native and adopted countries.”