Chancellor pushed to order RBS fraud investigation

Chancellor pushed to order RBS fraud investigation




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Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Tavish Scott, has written to Alistair Darling, urging him to order a fraud investigation over the claims that the Royal Bank of Scotland bosses deceived shareholders into pumping billions of pounds into the failing bank.

In a letter to the Chancellor, Mr Scott insisted that he refer the allegations to the Serious Fraud Office. He wrote: "The question that I wish to raise with you is whether the actions of the senior executives at RBS constitute fraud. To what extent were they aware of the perilous state of the bank's finances and to what extent did they disclose that information when they sought £12billion of additional investment from investors?

"Were investors given the information that would have allowed them to make a prudent judgement before investing their money?"

In April of last year, investors were assured that RBS had a “viable future” and the emergency £12 billion rights issue was made in order to “tackle a sudden deterioration in credit markets.”

However, investors stood by as the value of their holdings plunged from 200p a share to 12p as the real losses of RBS were uncovered.

By law, company directors who use untrue or misleading statements to persuade investors to buy shares can be made to pay compensation or, in extreme cases, imprisoned.

 

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