Britannia Radio

To the extent that the government doesn't own or even have a  
controlling interest in Lloyds Banking and that at the material time 
of any possible mismanagement the owners were the shareholders,  it 
would seem a 'dodgy' basis for any legal action unless fraud or 
illegal acts could be proved.

This smacks to me of 'vendetta' politics not any upholding of the 
law.  The mere fact of the action could pressurise weaker individuals 
to cave in early.  This is the way this pernicious government behaves 
and is well detailed by Tom Winsor, a former Rail Regulator in his 
account today of the dirty tricks carried out - illegally - to force 
a solvent company into bankruptcy and thus defraud the shareholders.  
For this see "The message gets louder - 'Brown OUT!" sent at 1.33pm 
today.

It all stinks!

XXXXXXXXXX CS
========================
FINANCIAL TIMES 4.3.09
Goodwin action could start 'in weeks'
By Jean Eaglesham, Chief Political Correspondent

Legal action against Sir Fred Goodwin or others implicated in the 
near-collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS could be initiated 
"within weeks", a Commons inquiry was told on Tuesday.

Two former RBS board members came under fire at the Treasury 
committee hearing for failing to sack Sir Fred, the bank's former 
chief executive, at the time of the October taxpayer bail-out. The 
decision to allow Sir Fred to take early retirement instead of giving 
him 12 months' notice to quit almost doubled the 50-year-old's 
pension from £416,000 to £703,000 a year, the bank disclosed in a 
letter to the committee.

The "compromise agreement" setting out the pension deal that has now 
provoked a political storm was hammered out in the early hours before 
the rescue deal for the bank was announced, it emerged. The agreement 
"was signed between midnight and 3am on [Monday] October 13" and 
approved the next day by the RBS chairman's committee, the bank said.

UK Financial Investment, the government body set up to manage the 
taxpayer's stakes in the banking sector, told MPs on Tuesday the "two 
key decision-takers" responsible for agreeing the terms of Sir Fred's 
departure were by Sir Tom McKillop, the former RBS chairman, and Bob 
Scott, the former chairman of the bank's remuneration committee.

The Tories sought to stoke the row over the payoff, questioning why 
Lord Myners, the City minister, had not questioned the pension terms 
when the deal was discussed with him during the weekend leading up to 
the bail-out.
"What we are trying to establish is whether this was a nod and wink 
banker-to-banker deal between Lord Myners and Fred Goodwin, or 
whether this was just sheer bungling incompetence," Michael Fallon, a 
Tory MP on the committee, stated.

John Kingman, UKFI's chief executive, said that the "criticism should 
be directed at those who took the decision"  [He would, wouldn't he.  
He's 'government and he's looking after HIS own -cs] . He 
characterised the decision to allow Sir Fred to be treated as 
retiring as "extraordinary" and accused the former RBS board of 
failing to pass on to ministers "material facts it ought to have 
shared with them".

A source close to RBS told the Financial Times "the former directors 
are outraged" at what they see as retrospective scapegoating by the 
government for a deal made under agreed terms at the bank.
"You can't sack someone for political expediency," the source 
stated.  [Oh yes you can if you're the government headed by Brown who 
always says that nothing is ever HIS fault. - cs]
The scope of the potential legal action being considered by the 
government over the near-collapse of the two banks emerged for the 
first time at the committee hearing on Tuesday.

Business decisions and corporate governance issues, such as the 
extent of information given to board members, are being reviewed to 
see if there is a realistic prospect of taking former directors, 
managers or advisers to court.
"We do have extensive legal advice," Mr Kingman told the committee on 
Tuesday. "We have asked the boards of both banks to undertake reviews 
of everything that went wrong at RBS and HBOS to see if there's scope 
for taking legal action." He added: "To the extent that any legal 
action derives from an analysis of the past, possibly relating to Sir 
Fred, possibly relating to other actors in the drama at RBS and HBOS, 
I would expect that to take weeks rather than days."