Dennis Stevenson, the chair of HBoS intent on selling the bank cheaply for what appears to be the dodgy political ends of senior members of the Labour Party was the Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission at the time of the Cash for Peerages scandal - he never noticed anything wrong, of course - his judgement must be mince.
He's a lifelong friend of Peter Mandelson and organised the dinners that Blair used early in his premiership to get himself into the pockets of some wealthy people.
Strangely, he doesn't have an entry on the House of Lords Register of Interests in spite of remunerated directorships being a Financial Interest which is always relevant and should be registered (George Foulkes' entry has gone missing too).
He has an interest in ManoCap which is a fund manager set up to exploit "Opportunities for profitable investment ... in post conflict and emerging African economies" - as if they haven't suffered enough.
This isn't the first financial scandal Stevenson has been involved with, either, he was caught up in the Blue Arrow scandal - which brings an interesting link to Gordon Brown through Derek Wanless.
Anyone expecting Mandelson to back down over HBoS might be waiting a while. Hopefully the tribunal will do the job, though.
2 comments:
You make an interesting comment about Derek Wanless. Plain Derek was ousted from NatWest in 1999 following disastrous strategic decisions. NatWest was severely weakened which led to the hostile take over by RBS - the rest is now history. Despite his failings at NatWest, plain Derek was commissioned by Gordon Brown to write the NHS Funding Report (which set GP's up for life with gold plated contracts).For acting as Brown's stooge, plain Derek srose as Sir Derek. Sadly, the Knighthood did not improve his poor judgement. Sir Derek was a Non-Exec' and Head of Risk at Northern Rock. He was severely lambasted, and deemed culpable, by the Treasury Select Committee for "not doing your job Sir Derek". Amazingly, despite overseeing the costliest actuarial faux pas in Banking history, Sir Derek Wanless retains his seat on the Government's Board for Actuarial Standards. The latter is part of the FRC, and appointments are authorised by the Secretary of State for BERR. You guessed it ! Lord Mandelson. This week Sir Derek Wanless and his fellow members on the BAS have released a new paper. It promotes prudent standards for Corporate Heads to use when assessing risk scenarios. Sir Derek's input must have been invaluable !!
Once you're in ...
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