Greensill: David Cameron 'made $10m' before company’s collapse

Controversial: Politics & Govt Politics & Govt: In The News
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2021-08-09T17:48:00Z

The details about Mr Cameron’s shares were revealed in a letter, seen by BBC Panorama, from Greensill Capital to the former prime minister.

According to the letter, Mr Cameron was going to be paid $4,569,851.60 (about £3.3m) after tax for a tranche of his Greensill shares.

As well as the shares, Mr Cameron received a salary of $1m (£720,000) a year as a part-time adviser.

The programme also understands that the former prime minister was paid a bonus of $700,000 (£504,000) in 2019 on top of his salary.

In total, it looks like he made around $10m before tax for two-and-a-half years’ part-time work.

Mr Cameron’s spokesman said: “He acted in good faith at all times and there was no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took.”

Ex-PMs and money-grabbing ventures may be legal but I find them distasteful … :face_vomiting:

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Ex-PMs and money-grabbing ventures may be legal but I find them distasteful … :face_vomiting:

They’re no different to all the other big business bosses. Money always gravitates to money and Cameron was no exception.

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2021-08-09T23:37:00Z

Quite so … Cameron is an Etonian … :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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From your last comment, I gather you have a problem with those who attended a public school. I am the product of a public boarding school and it served me well. Cameron came from monied stock and I did not; there lies the difference. Privileged at birth is the greatest influencing factor and Eaton simply added more to the pot. I am convinced most of Cameron’s fiscal arrogance and devious ways of working were gained at university. Unlike Cameron, my university was a red-brick/glass job where family background played no part whatsoever.

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2021-08-10T07:41:00Z

Indeed not … I obtained a scholarship to one (founded in 1344 by Isabella of France, widow of Edward II) … :smiley:

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2021-08-10T11:02:00Z

David Cameron faces ‘very serious’ questions about knowledge of Greensill’s rescue efforts

David Cameron has “very serious” questions to answer over whether he knew Greensill was “moving money around” to plug up the faltering business while seeking public funds, a senior MP has said, following fresh allegations about the former prime minister.

Darren Jones, a Labour MP and chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) committee, said on Tuesday the documentary had raised fresh questions about what Mr Cameron knew when he was seeking access to public funds.

“There is a question of whether he knew that Greensill Capital was having to move money around to cover up businesses that were in essence bankrupt while he cashed out his shares and at the same time was lobbying his friends in Whitehall and officials to get public-backed funds to shore up a failing business - and therefore a huge commercial interest for him,” Mr Jones told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. The second issue was questions over “fake invoices… in respect of another company”, which would be “clearly a criminal offence”.

Mr Jones, whose committee is running an inquiry into the affair, added:

“It seems to me that David Cameron didn’t have any position with any accountability attached to it, but he seemed to be in the boardroom, he seems to have been on Lex Greensill’s private jet, and if he was in the room, and on the private jet, and in the boardroom, the question is how much did he know about how much the business was in trouble while asking for public funds to shore it up. That is a very serious question that Mr Cameron needs to answer fully.”

He certainly does … :icon_exclaim:

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2021-08-10T14:56:00Z

David Cameron personally promoted Greensill to investors

The June event Mr Cameron attended was called “The Future of Supply Chain Finance”, and the audience were wealthy Credit Suisse clients.

Credit Suisse was marketing and selling Greensill investments at the time, and the bank told investors they were low risk. Investors thought their money was being loaned to companies that were awaiting payment for goods and services they had sold.

The loans were supposed to be backed up by unpaid invoices, but earlier this year it was revealed that some of the invoices simply did not exist. US court papers show how between 2018 and 2021, Greensill lent $850m of investors’ cash to a US coal company called Bluestone Resources. Only $70m of that money was secured against real invoices for coal that Bluestone had actually sold. Investors did not know it, but the remaining $780m was only backed by predicted coal sales that may or may not happen in the future.

Lex Greensill told Panorama that this type of financing was commonplace in the financial services industry. He said the predicted Bluestone business was all “based upon future trade that is likely to occur with current customers”. Panorama discovered that was not true. The programme obtained the names of the companies that Lex Greensill said were current customers of Bluestone. Six of the companies said they were not Bluestone customers and they weren’t planning to buy its coal in the future.

Lex Greensill later told Panorama the coal buyers did not have to be current customers. Bluestone only had to state it expected to make the sales at some future point and Greensill was not obliged to make checks, he said.

Mr Greensill denied misleading investors. He said his company made all the appropriate disclosures to Credit Suisse and the Swiss Bank was “solely responsible for making any disclosures to their investors”. He said the loans were always secured against assets and personal guarantees, and were backed up by insurance that would pay 100% of any shortfall.

Cameron was, seemingly, being paid to promote the insubstantial “business” of an outrageous liar … :roll_eyes:

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A Public Accounts Committee report on the British Business Bank’s Covid loan scheme said checks to approve the company were “woefully inadequate”.

Greensill went on to lend £418m to companies, 80% of which may have to be repaid by taxpayers if they default.

Ex-PM David Cameron was an adviser to the lender, which collapsed in March.

A government spokesman said it was not involved in the decision to accredit Greensill: “The decision was taken independently by the British Business Bank, in accordance with their usual procedures.” (1)

The British Business Bank was tasked with approving High Street banks and other lenders to dish out government-backed loans to embattled businesses, as Covid-19 restrictions first took hold. It was a conduit for billions of pounds in emergency lending.

With help from then-adviser Mr Cameron, Greensill tried to access several government schemes, some of which were rejected. In June 2020 it was approved to lend, under two business interruption loan schemes.

The vast majority of the government-guaranteed loans from Greensill went to companies within Sanjeev Gupta’s steel empire GFG Alliance, and the bank eventually suspended the loan guarantees after it appeared Greensill had broken the £50m lending cap to groups of companies.

But before it got to that point, the MPs found, different government departments and agencies were not sharing their concerns about Greensill and its main client GFG.

The MPs’ report pointed to issues raised with the National Crime Agency about one part of GFG Alliance, Wyelands Bank, that the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) spoke about, but did not share with the British Business Bank “because they deemed it not to be relevant to the accreditation process despite Greensill being a significant financier to the GFG Alliance”.

MPs said this “lack of information-sharing across government” which hampered decision-making in response to the pandemic, allowed Greensill access to taxpayer-funded schemes, thereby exposing taxpayers to a risk of £335m should Greensill’s administrators seek repayment.

The British Business Bank was also criticised for being “insufficiently curious” about media reports that questioned Greensill’s lending model and ethical standards.

In May the Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into GFG over suspected fraudulent trading and money laundering, including its financing arrangements with Lex Greensill’s company.

(1) British Business Bank plc (BBB) is a state-owned economic development bank established by the UK Government. Its aim is to increase the supply of credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as providing business advice services. It is structured as a public limited company and is owned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS, formerly known as the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills or BIS). The bank has its headquarters in Sheffield.

You’d think that £335,000,000 would pique the government’s interest, wouldn’t you … :wink: