Archive for July, 2006
July 23rd, 2006
The Parmalat fraud has generated too little reform (Financial Times)
Parmalat shareholders will tomorrow elect a new board of directors, signalling the revival of the Italian maker of milk, yoghurts and fruit juices less than two years after its collapse in Europe’s biggest corporate fraud. The ripple effect, however, is likely to be felt for years as regulators, banks, auditors and politicians grapple with an uncomfortable question: has enough action been taken to prevent another Parmalat?
July 16th, 2006
An American court is the right place for the NatWest Three (The Sunday Times)
Three former NatWest employees extradited from Britain were bailed on Friday by a court in Texas on charges related to the Enron affair. The relevant law, the Extradition Act 2003, is deficient and should be changed but that is not reason enough to stay their trial. They are a bad example of the act’s failings since there is a clear case for them to answer, and in America. The Enron scandal, one of the biggest frauds in history, ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people. No British court found in favour of the trio’s plea to stay at home.
Britain is widely regarded as liberty hall to financial malpractice, as its auction houses long knew to their advantage. Yet Britain’s treatment of foreigners in its legal system is a disgrace, holding them in prison for long periods without trial and jailing 500 West Indian women, almost all first offenders, for being dupes of Jamaican drug dealers. Britain can hardly criticise American courts on these grounds. Nor do most of these people have “pro bono†public relations firms depicting them as humble citizens with tear-stained families. They have no costly lawyers or sudden parliamentary concern or “white-collar crime†epithets to launder their case. They cannot cry “civis Britannicus sum†and work Fleet Street’s financial pages into a lather of righteous indignation.
July 2nd, 2006
The SmartLogik Action Group thoroughly endorses the UKSA initiative to get full shareholder rights for shareholders in nominee accounts. Please try to support the demonstration taking place outside the Houses of Parliament on 6th July (see the post below). SmartLogik Action Group is affiliated to UKSA, so go for it!
We support this UKSA initiative because we have direct experience of how difficult it is to make contact with shareholders in nominee accounts. Despite a concerted effort in 2004, it was only possible to persuade a few nominees to pass on information to their shareholder clients. We estimate that there are literally thousands of SmartLogik shareholders in nominee accounts. Since the nominees (banks, etc.) do not have to pass information on to them, these people probably have no idea that there is an action taking place on their behalf. This has had the effect of significantly reducing the funding available to us - less action group members, less funding.
In view of the huge profits being made by the banks through irresponsible lending - did you see Panorama on BBC1 tonight, “The Money Trap” - we believe it is time for them to stop using cost as an excuse for not giving full shareholder rights to shareholders in nominee accounts. They have to do it in the USA, Canada and Australia, so why shouldn’t British shareholders also have these rights? We are a democracy, aren’t we?
