It is about exchange rate and Icelanders scrambled sense of money.
Current exchange rate (1 USD = 123.29 ISK) (it is about the same now as it was back then when this took place) makes $5000 at 621900 ISK. In Iceland that is a decent amount of money, since most people only have 180.000 - 350000 ISK a month. For this guy this was maybe worth 1 to 3 month worth of his regular income in Iceland, if he was on unemployment benefits at the time, we are speaking about up to 4 months worth of his regular income.
I highly doubt he did ask for more money, since he was just looking at the payment in ISK rather than just USD. That is at least my best guess.
ISK exchange rate, http://www.sedlabanki.is/gengi/gengisskraning/
This is high income in Iceland even if it for a short period, but low in the U.S at the same time. Just shows how fucked up things really are in Iceland when it comes to economics and money.
This guy is also an retard for doing this. Since the current shift in monitoring policies world wide are undermining democracy worldwide and that is not a good thing.