Rover Executives 'extracted £42m'

[markinspain]

When the time comes we'll run out of gallows for these people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8248923.stm

[merville]

When the time comes we'll run out of gallows for these people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8248923.stm

These charlatans sold years of intellectual property for [iIRC] £1. to the Chinese. What they did IMHO is treasonable and I believe the death penalty is still on the statute books, so maybe hanging or beheading is not as fanciful a notion as you think markinspain. :angry:

[SarahBell]

The report to tell us they didn't break the law took 4 years and cost 16M.

FFS.

[wonderpup]

The report to tell us they didn't break the law took 4 years and cost 16M.

FFS.

Look on the bright side- even now the forces of law and order are closing in on a benefit claiment doing some cash in hand down the local chippy. Funny how the law seems geared up to catch the minnows, but the big fish somehow slip the nets of justice.

[Rockape]

I thought they were not going to get prosecuted by the CPS so it's a bit unlikey that the report is going to say "thieving barstewards stole the money."

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

THIS ISN'T NEWS.

This was known when Rover went bust.

The best bit is, the Phonix 4 were no-bodies. Little experience, no funding. Bought the company for a tenner with £500 million in the companies bank account. Awarded themselves pensions, fully funded, money in a private pension fund. Gave themselves good pay. When they bought it though, they did have to put up some colateral. £110,000 from loans secured on their houses. Paid pack with their first months wages.

It was always a scam. A deal done between 4 no-bodies and BMW to allow BMW to get rid of Rover. Winding it up and paying off the staff would have cost well over £1bn... probably closer to £5bn when you include the cost of all the redundancies and cleaning up the polluted decades only factory sites.

£500 million to get rid of rover. From BMWs point of view, it was a bargain.

[Redcellar]

"The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said it was a "humiliating 800-page catalogue of how they enriched themselves while the last UK-owned mass market motor manufacturer hurtled towards insolvency"."

I am sure they feel totally humiliated. As they lounge by the sea on some exotic island never having to work again or even read the sub-standard beeb reporting.

[uptherebels]

When the time comes we'll run out of gallows for these people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8248923.stm

Yes, but when WILL the time come?

[DEATH]

They make it sound like the whole thing was just a scam to dump the redundancy payments onto

the taxpayer...

I would have written that on an A4 for a lot less than the £16m they paid the accountants.

[Cogs]

All perfectly legal, nothing wrong with it at all.

This is how capitalism works.

Anyone complaining should move to Cuba.

[Democorruptcy]

I've just watched the BBC news and cannot understand what all the fuss is about.

£42m for 5 executives over 5 years equals on average £1.68m per executive per year - SO WHAT?

Don't the BBC realise how executive pay has spiralled?

Just look at the pay at another loss making business - Royal Mail

CEO Adam Crozier picked up £3m in 2007/2008 and another bloke there got £1/2m compensation for leaving a job he had only done for a year!

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world...86908-20427711/

Ex-HBoS banker Andy Hornby is in line for over £1m at Boots

£1/2m basic and up to 125% bonus!! These executives love their bonuses!!

http://www.retail-week.com/careers/appoint...5003384.article

Edit for better link.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Redhat Sly

[blankster]

If you own the till and all the cash it contains, you're allowed to dip your hand in it.

Do people use the term 'legalised theft' at all?

[shedfish]

in a rare departure from my self-enforced exile from Pravda 24 i channel popped there last night; where, as well as this, they were obsessing about Thatcher's take on the reunification of Germany

when compared to Hank Paulson and co 'extracting' 800 Billion prior to retirement, and the current precarious state of things the whole thing seemed, well, quaint

even Enron looks like a minor shoplifting incident these days

[Realistbear]

Corporate extraction of funds, bank bonuses etc. are now normative. In a world of relatavism who is to say that what they did was wrong? The entire decade of imprudence under NuLabour has redefined morals and ethics. We now live in the Brown paradigm where good is bad and bad is good (debt is good).

We live in an era similar to that when another Scotsman (Charles I) ruled the roost and during which a populist movement began as a reaction thereto. Do we have another Mr. Cromwell?

[Fozziebear40]

The 4 robbing sods is bad enough but how does it cost £16 million to write a bloody report!! Even if it has taken 4 years thats £4 million a year, take off the printing costs of £10, throw in a couple of computers and calculators

Note to self... tell son to train as an accountant.

[Realistbear]

The 4 robbing sods is bad enough but how does it cost £16 million to write a bloody report!! Even if it has taken 4 years thats £4 million a year, take off the printing costs of £10, throw in a couple of computers and calculators

Note to self... tell son to train as an accountant.

City accountants charge out at 1200 an hour plus a bonus at the end of it all.

[rw42]

Meh. Sum up the £16m report in the daily star on one short paragraph, and see how long they last.

[CharlieChuck]

The missing bit for me which people aren't reporting or talking about is why the company went under. No one wanted to buy the cars. It wouldn't have mattered if the exec's paid themselves £36mn or £36 in the four years, the company still would have gone under. Why did no one want the cars? That's the important question to me. No one abroad wanted a british car and it seemed no one here wanted to buy a british car. Bad design, price or the stigma of a british made car? I don't know.

That doesn't mean I don't think they knew exactly what would happen back in 2000, they took a small risk and got an enormous reward for it. As far as I remember no one else wanted it back in 2000, or the terms other people were offering were even worse. As someone said above, the real winner here was BMW.

[Cogs]

The missing bit for me which people aren't reporting or talking about is why the company went under. No one wanted to buy the cars. It wouldn't have mattered if the exec's paid themselves £36mn or £36 in the four years, the company still would have gone under. Why did no one want the cars? That's the important question to me. No one abroad wanted a british car and it seemed no one here wanted to buy a british car. Bad design, price or the stigma of a british made car? I don't know.

That doesn't mean I don't think they knew exactly what would happen back in 2000, they took a small risk and got an enormous reward for it. As far as I remember no one else wanted it back in 2000, or the terms other people were offering were even worse. As someone said above, the real winner here was BMW.

Pretty clear cut actually; lack of investment in new designs. They were reduced to selling very old designs (but for cosmetics) at relatively low prices.

That wasn't where the market was, particularly during the Brown Boom.

What could have been: http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?rovrd60f.htm

I believe lots of people think Landrovers and Aston Martins are desirable cars, and that Honda Civics and Toyota Avensis are reliable buys and that Ford Transmits are worthwhile for businesses. Not quite sure where this "British car stigma" business comes from unless you are speaking to us via a rift in time from the 1970s.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Cogs

[Ash4781]

When the time comes we'll run out of gallows for these people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8248923.stm

Yeah but wasn't Rover uncompetitve ? (edit: removed always)

They said it collapsed with billions £ of debt. This morning the BBC ran a feature with a former worker. He was buying a new car every 9 months, and they mentioned that 90% of former workers employed now but that their average wages had fallen.

Everything propped up by debt. Where have I heard that before ?

Edited September 11, 2009 by Ash4781

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

Mandleslime says they should appologise and promise never to work as directors again.

With £42million split 5 ways, I'm pretty sure they weren't planning on ever working again anyway.

Remember these weren't city high fliers.... these guys were absolute no-bodies. £8 million was a ot of money.

[markinspain]

It gets worse. Apparently, 1.6m went missing to a female consultant who one of the directors happened to be having a relationship with! You really couldn't make it up. Where do I sign up to be in a consortium to rescue UK GM? I've got 10 euros right here.

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

They make it sound like the whole thing was just a scam to dump the redundancy payments onto

the taxpayer...

I would have written that on an A4 for a lot less than the £16m they paid the accountants.

Yep. The whole thing stinks.

I'm sure there is a big untold story behind the MG Rover debacle

[MrsNoelEdmonds]

My dad worked for rover/austin/leyland for 35 years - from when he was 15 until it folded. He worked hard, had 2 weeks off sick in his 35 year career with them, contributed ideas to the company suggestion scheme and of course he paid into the pension scheme.

When Rover folded the first thing that happened was that he was told to hand back the car that he was paying for on the employee scheme (or he could have shelled out a few grand to keep it), then began the battle for his pension.

He had planned on retiring about now, but thanks to those charlatans and thieves he has a tiny, tiny pension pot - way below what he should have had (which wasn't going to be mega bucks) and is has had to take a minimum wage driving job to keep his head above water.

That £42 million should be reclaimed and distributed to the 'little' people whose lives were turned upside down.

I'm a leftie liberal, but I'd be happy to see the death penalty applied for those four.

[200p]

Its alright fellow serfs!

I hear they won't be allowed to be directors ever again!

Justice at laast!