An update on Kaupthing.
Prompted by listener emails, on PM yesterday we covered the plight of savers in the Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man) bank. There was a court hearing today into the winding-up of the bank. We've just received a press release from the Isle of Man government it says,
"Following an application from the Treasury, the court agreed to adjourn consideration of a winding-up order until 29 January 2009 so that alternatives could be further explored."
So winding-up is put on hold, while attempts to salvage the bank continue. The press release also mentions that the Isle of Man government is aware of the suffering of depositors like Katy Watt, who we featured on the programme, and is considering a "payment on account"
You can read the full press release here. The website of the KSFIOM Depositors Action Group can be found here.
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For many of us affected, time has already run out. I'm my particular case everything (family, career, plans, retirement et al) is now lost irredeemably and I am quite literally on the streets – my sincere thanks now go to the Salvo’s (food), St Vincent de Pauls (shelter) and an anonymous internet-café owner (inet access – he did not want to be identified, but is my current savior).
It is at times like these when the true colours of professionals is shown. An airline pilot, for example, has computers doing all the work now (take off, flight, landing); however the skill level of the pilot is shown when a breakdown or something untoward happens. Likewise, it is easy for anyone with enough money to become an MP. For most of the time their skill level is not tested but at times like these it is simple to identify the MPs who are genuinely good at their jobs and those who are just MPs as something to do.
The UK political system, as whole, probably needs to do some quite intense navel gazing. This debacle, triggered by our own Prime Minister and his Chancellor, has shown that the Parliamentary system at Westminster is simply failing. Hundreds, perhaps a few thousands, British citizens around the world have a disaster unfolding for them and have done since the 8th October; yet the silence has been deafening and what political noises there have been (such as Mr Pearsons’) have generally been factually incorrect, dismissive and frighteningly incompetent.
Some MPs have shown themselves to be skilled and decent politicians (from all sides of the House), however their hard and diligent work has been drowned out and almost totally negated by the lesser able MPs who are in office not though ability. However, with only 1 in 3 of the UK population bothering to take any interest in who leads them, we wonder if we don’t get the Government we deserve.
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Merry Christmas Mr Brown and best wishes for the season.
Unfortunately, your chancellor Mr Darling has ensured that my own Christmas will (probably) be spent in the company of the Salvation Army and my new found friends. I shall be apart from the rest of my family as they have been forced by your good chancellor to accept the assistance of elderly relatives who could not afford to pay for my flight as well.
I can inform you that the streets of Australia are generally clean and for the last 2 weeks (approximately, time now doesn’t seem to have the same meaning as it did up to the 7th Oct) I have only had to sleep al fresco about 50% of the time due to a friendly St Vincent de Paul shelter in the locality.
The food tends to be quite bland; nourishing, but bland. I use the services of a Salvation Army establishment for dining and although the meals are inexpensive (in fact free. Which is good as I no longer actually have any money – your chancellor confiscated it) they do lack flavor and variety. My dining partners have informed me that tasty snacks can be found in dispensers close to fast-food and takeaway outlets; in a past life I had actually used these dispensers as repositories for left over food (and indeed other unwanted items, such as litter and beer cans) and so it will be some time before I can start to see these as food sources.
I’d like to give you a fuller update of what is happening in my life, just for your titillation, but my access to the Internet has been severely curtailed and I must vacate this computer once again. I am looking forward to another relaxing and quiet day, although I am fearful that – as with other days – i shall be enveloped by dysphoria which will reduce me to tears.
Happy Christmas Mr Brown. Happy Christmas Mr Darling.
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Well, so much for Mr Ian Pearson (Dudley South) getting investigated for the lies he told Parliament on the 6th of Novermber at 18:17.
Pearson told Parliament that there was no reason anyone _had_ to use offshore accounts as they could have just as easlity opened onshore accounts. This is not only a lie it is a misleading lie as it implies that by using an offshore account the person is doing so for an ulterior motive. Mr Pearson's lie's in Parliament not only meant that the Chancellors mistakes could continue to be covered up, but that families who have been thrown into immediate chaos havent got a hope in hell of putting their lives together. Brown, Darling and their cabin boy Pearson have blood on their hands.
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This grubby Government got away with the death of a whistle blower over the fake WMD lies told to Parliament. I'm damned if they will get away with this one.
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What the hell is wrong with the UK political system?
Hundreds of British citizens are sinking into destitution, poverty and suicide as a result of the actions of Darling Brown and the lies of Pearson. Every single one of them has been writing, in bulk, to the members of the house. Yet all that the house of commons (lower case characters used deliberatly) can muster is a 5 minute chat on the 6th of November where the response is a pack of lies (Pearson). Then, when the speaker makes a mistake all hell breaks loose. WHAT ABOUT OUR LIVES YOU IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!
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Lets face it, Brown is not a real PM anyway. The only reason he is PM is because he sulked to Blair. Reckon Mrs Blair was probably right when she allegedly called him a liar at conference.
Can i point out that this is how extremism starts. Just take a look at history Brown, then go and crawl away back under the slurry heap where you came from; you will never be a real Prime Minister because you just havent got what it takes - a backbone.
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Well Mr Pretend Prime Minister Brown, how was your weekend?
Mine was going pretty ok, except I had my only footware - a pair of trainers - stolen Saturday night. You would know about theft wouldn't you as your Chancellor threw us into this hell when he stole our lives on the 8th Oct 2008 (D-Day - Darling Day).
Woke up sunday (at the St. Vinies shelter for homeless men) to find someone had taken my footware. I am 43, but cried like a baby - not so much because I loved the trainers but because it was just another example (along with raking around in dustbins, queing at the Salvo's for stew/bread, being looked on pitifully by folk in nice cars, being called names by kids, catching a whiff of myself and feeling ill etc.....) of the rock bottom your pathetic little 'Chancellor' has thrown me.
I'm dreading Christmas Mr Brown. I mean REALLY dreading it. I know that I'm not going to see my family before the 25th and it just so depresses me. As a family, we have always loved Christmas. The real excitment in the kids eyes on Christmas eve, the leaving of a decent Courvoisier and mince pie for Father Christmas and some carrots & celery for the Reindeer - then the pandamonium (the only time of year they can get away with that sort of behavoir) as they see that the pillow-slips they left out had been filled! But not this year Mr Brown, not this year. Mr Darling when he made his mammoth error of judgement (which your Government wont even acknowledge, let alone apologise for - indeed, you rope in the more stupid & gullable of your MPs - Pearson - to tell Parliament a pack of lies) sowed the seeds of our families death, of which we are in the throws of now.
Sad, that none of this was our own fault. Your legislation had forced us to use an Offshore account (indeed, the onshore banks had forcilbly closed our accounts when we tried to change our address). 3 days the money had been in there, just 2 lousy days. I was in process of transfering the money over here (again, against my will, as i would have prefered to leave it the UK. But your 'anti-terrorism' legislation had put paid to that. Who needs Al-Quada when you have New-Labour!!) when the chancellor turned thief.
As usual, thanks to this Cafe Owner for allowing me access to the Internet. Reckon i would have topped myself by now without this access. Shame that ordinary folk are doing a lot more than the UK Government. So so much more.
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So sorry to hear UkGovInept comments and how desperate their situation is.
In my opinion the UK Government needs a regulator - how can it be permitted to destroy relations with Iceland, Guernsey, The Isle of Man, and ruin thousands of expats lives and put them on the bread line. It's completely outrageous.
Why is the government permitted to use anti-terrorism laws to seize a banks assets and cause it to fail, supposedly in the interest of UK savers. The truth is that the savers didn't need rescuing and the UK government spent billions of tax payers money for no good reason - bloody wasters ! That kind of spend should be authorised by a consensus of opinion from other parties or a government regulator.
Someone must be able to do something about this. The Government shouldn't be permitted to be in office. It won't be for much longer, that's a fact.
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Mr Brown
You are killing us.
Its been 8 terrible weeks 8 weeks of knowing nothing 8 weeks of facing a future with nothing.
And the majority of people are not young but like ourselves nearing retirement or retired after a long working tax paying life.
We are facing hardship and penury when its too late to start again.
Our lives instead of moving quietly towards a secure old age the race run well or at least as well as possible find ourselves back at the begining but older and tireder.
Hope that you can sleep at night we dont
Have a good christmas we wont.
Unless you do the right thing we are not asking for anything but our own savings back.
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Many thanks to the BBC for keeping this fateful story alive.
There is one thing that every single depositor dearly needs answering: Why does the IoM deposit of ?550M have to stay in the KSFUK bank for dividing up between UK depositors (including the Treasury?)
Mr Darling wants nothing to do with the IoM, but also does nothing to encourage the return of IoM monies to its rightful owners.
The deposit represents thousands of savers hard won diligent efforts to secure their respective futures. Why can the money saved in the IoM not be returned to the IoM? The retail depositors never had a say in our funds being put there, the bank did this supposedly on our behalf to 'safe-keep' them.
The UK depositors seeking a share-out of the total assets are not retail depositors, they chose to make wholesale deposits in that UK bank. Why can their deposits not be conglomerated and shared amongst them, and the IoM asset returned to the Island's bank for division between IoM depositors? Why does this seem so alien to the powers in charge of 'our' money? Was there not a biblical passage that says 'give unto Rome that which belongs to Rome'?
KSFIoM depositors will join with me in saying give unto the IoM that which belongs to the IoM.
We didn't get looked after in the UK bail-out so why should our money be included in the UK divvy up? It is has nothing to do with legal requirements, this is people's livelihoods we are talking about here - some people's lives even. You don't talk about people's entire life-savings as though they are a figure of legal speech.
We know who saved that money, and we all know why it was in that UK bank and how it got there.
What we don't understand/know/comprehend/ or accept is why it is still there and why it has not been returned to those who paid for it.
The Treasury should underwrite its return pending liquidation of the UK bank - just like it's done for ever other retail depositor, otherwise the pretence of the money being placed in the UK bank for safe-keeping (for depositors) is exposed as a blatant lie and strengthens the case that manipulations got the money into that bank for one reason only - and it had nothing to do with 'safe-keeping' for the intended beneficiaries.
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HMG could not have arranged with ING to take-over 170,000 Kaupthing Edge accounts within hours of declaring the default; this could only have been set-up beforehand, maybe just days, maybe longer.
HMG had no control over the regulation of IceSave accounts; it could only achieve the aim of 'freezing' all IceSave assets by using a power within the Anti Terrorism Crime and Security Act. The stated intention was to protect the depositors and the UK economy.
How did the Chancellor imagine this was going to play out? The IceSave accounts were frozen until HMG cut a deal with the Icelandics over the IMF loan - could Mr Darling have accurately forecast this outcome; was it a high risk strategy or was the result assured?
We have only HMT/FSA's finding that KSFUK was found unable to meet its commitments; yet the freezing of IceSave accounts and KSFUK going into Administration look decidely like an orchestrated two-pronged near-simulataneous action. It would have been preferable to make this move when the KSFUK contained more, rather than less money, that is, to plan the moment...
Mr Darling initiated the telephone call to Arnie Mathiesen on the 7th Oct and asked leading questions throughout the exchange. His interpretation from the entire conversation was that Iceland was not able to provide depositor protection outside of its borders. As Mr Darling lead the exchange, and Mr Mathiesen generally confirmed the Chancellors leading questions, it's not surprising that Mr Darling could assert his understanding of the conversation - it went the way he had directed it.
Having achieved enough to claim the Icelandics were not going to guarantee UK depositors, the rest of the spin machine fell into place and the action followed suit. Everything happened so quickly it surprised most people and left some much fog around that it is still difficult to unravel and determine the truth behind it all.
Amidst all of this, the KSFIoM asset in the UK bank had been growing over the past few months from transfers made from the IoM and was now worth a massive £550M. It was taken into Administration, claimed to be unsecured, and retained for distribution. If HMG did not plan this outcome, then it must be an Act of God in their favour. This sum will go a long way in paying all those councils, charities, police forces, London Transport etc etc, which would likely have received very little without this windfall. We will get the short end of the stick. If we were to take legal action, the Govt. has it's share of £550M at stake and could outspend the depositors in any legal action - and prolong the action indefinitly
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I am one such depositor, and the more I learn about what happened, the more I'm convinced that this is a Government scandal shrouded in secrecy and intended to alienate and discredit offshore jurisdictions as viable and legitimate banking centres.
If the UK Government knew about Icelandic banking problems back in March, why didn't they tell anyone ? They even left their own UK councils in the lurch, and they had millions invested.
Why did the UK Government refuse to assist Iceland ? It would have cost a fraction of what the they have spent in transferring ownership of Kaupthing (UK) to Dutch owned ING bank. Several billion of taxpayers money was needlessly spent in that exercise.
Kaupthing was a viable business prior to the UK Government using anti-terrorism laws to seize their assets early in October. The Government brought the bank down and necessitated the rescue of the UK arm.
Isn't it interesting how the FSA advised Kaupthing (IoM) to transfer £557 million to Kaupthing (UK), then denied that there was any guarantee that the money would be safe. Imminently after the transfer, the UK Government froze the assets of Kaupthing(UK). I'm convinced that this was pre-meditated.
The UK Government are preventing the funds that were transferred from Kaupthing(IoM) from being returned back to the bank. This money belongs to Kaupthing(IoM) and NOT Kaupthing(UK). It should be used to help re-launch Kaupthing(IoM), but the UK Government is preventing this, or any other positive outcome from occurring.
This whole affair is shrouded in secrecy - there are sealed papers that the UK Government will not permit the temporary liquidators or any other interested party to gain access to. The UK Government aren't telling us the truth behind all this - they have clearly got something to hide.
The UK Government is smearing the Isle of Man as being a "Tax Haven" where people put money to evade tax. This is complete spin. It is well known that the UK Government receives large tax revenues from offshore jurisdictions owing to the EUSD tax rules that exist. These taxes have been ramping up over the last few years. The UK Government are using this as a diversion tactic to cover up their own ineptitude and dirty politics.
The UK Government have brought about the collapse of a number of Icelandic owned banks,has put over 8,000 depositors into financial hardship, has brought the Icelandic economy crashing down, and is now attempting to undermime and damage the reputation of offshore jurisdictions. That's quite a lot of dirty work that they've achieved with so little effort at a time when governments should be pulling together internationally to put an end to this global financial crisis. I think the UK Government has done this for purely selfish and corrupt reasons.
This story merits further investigation or better still a public enquiry. The UK Governments has acted in it's own self interest - it's abominable behaviour should be fully scutinised - clearly this behaviour has NOT been in the interest of the UK populus or the world economy.
It has damaged relations with Iceland and offshore neighbours. The UK Government have made matters considerably worse by putting politics ahead of viable economic policy and meddling in matters that it clearly didn't understand and didn't think through properly.
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I am British and worked overseas for British Companies for a number of years. My retirement savings were deposited in KSFIOM. This fiasco is a disgrace. By their actions the British Government brought about the demise of KSFIOM.
The KSF matter was handled appallingly and inflicted significant damage to many, as can be seen from stories here. Messrs Brown and Darling continue to present themselves as key in protecting UK savers, which they have clearly failed to do.
I hope that they find a concience, and take rectifying action. Depositors who have lost their hard earned cash will not simply give up and will hound them relentlessly.
Bailout NOT required, just return of KSFIOM funds.
(On tax issues: Seems Mr Darling has not been told about the EU savings directive).
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PLEASE SEE RELATED BBC BLOG WITH MANY COMMENTS REGARDING KSFIOM AT:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2008/11/a_twist_in_the_expat_tale.shtml
Thanks to the BBC for taking this up.
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The update from me is that my dear friend is suicidal because he thinks he's being a serious problem to friends. They are having to keep him, for bed, food and spare cash.
How pathetic is it that a person who has worked for a UK business all their lives, and has paid UK taxes, to have their money stolen by the UK government.
Kaufthing, Singer and Freidlander was a very sound bank. Far more 'sound' than Lloyds TSB etc. Why should the depositors money be 'shunted' to ING within hours?
So many questions, no answers. Just 'closed' papers. What does that tell anyone - 'closed papers'?
Secrets - that's what it means. I can do on about 'secrets' in government which has cost the UK trillions of pounds and many people grief.
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Suffering of depositors is an understatement - this is a absolute UK Government scandal. It stinks of corruption.
"Icegate" - this could be bigger than "Watergate"
The actions of the UK Government precipitating the collapse of a number of Icelandic banks by seizing their assets has had a drastic effect on the Icelandic economy and thousands of investors who had deposits in Kaupthing (IoM) and Landsbanki(Guernsey).
The BBC is Radio 4 PM Blogg has been steadily collecting statements concerning the plight of Kaupthing (IoM) depositors who stand to lose their life savings. There are around 250 comments there now. See the link below :-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2008/11/a_twist_in_the_expat_tale.shtml
I am one such depositor, and the more I learn about what happened, the more I'm convinced that this is a Government scandal shrouded in secrecy and intended to alienate and discredit offshore jurisdictions as viable and legitimate banking centres.
+ If the UK Government knew about Icelandic banking problems back in March, why didn't they tell anyone ? They even left their own UK councils in the lurch, and they had millions invested.
+ Why did the UK Government refuse to assist Iceland ? It would have cost a fraction of what the they have spent in transferring ownership of Kaupthing (UK) to Dutch owned ING bank. Several billion of taxpayers money was needlessly spent in that exercise.
+ Kaupthing was a viable business prior to the UK Government using anti-terrorism laws to seize their assets early in October. The Government brought the bank down and necessitated the rescue of the UK arm.
+ Isn't it interesting how the FSA advised Kaupthing (IoM) to transfer £557 million to Kaupthing (UK), then denied that there was any guarantee that the money would be safe. Imminently after the transfer, the UK Government froze the assets of Kaupthing(UK). I'm convinced that this was pre-meditated.
+ The UK Government are preventing the funds that were transferred from Kaupthing(IoM) from being returned back to the bank. This money belongs to Kaupthing(IoM) and NOT Kaupthing(UK). It should be used to help re-launch Kaupthing(IoM), but the UK Government is preventing this, or any other positive outcome from occurring.
+ This whole affair is shrouded in secrecy - there are sealed papers that the UK Government will not permit the temporary liquidators or any other interested party to gain access to. The UK Government aren't telling us the truth behind all this - they have clearly got something to hide.
+ The UK Government is smearing the Isle of Man as being a "Tax Haven" where people put money to evade tax. This is complete spin. It is well known that the UK Government receives large tax revenues from offshore jurisdictions owing to the EUSD tax rules that exist. These taxes have been ramping up over the last few years. The UK Government are using this as a diversion tactic to cover up their own ineptitude and dirty politics.
+ Why has the UK Government decided to loan money to Iceland after damaging their economy ? They have done this despite refusing to lend Iceland money back in March 2008. Is it because the UK Government realises that's it's made one monumental mistake and is trying to repair the mess it has created ?
+ The UK Government have brought about the collapse of a number of Icelandic owned banks, has put over 8,000 depositors into financial hardship, has brought the Icelandic economy crashing down, and is now attempting to undermime and damage the reputation of offshore jurisdictions. That's quite a lot of dirty work that they've achieved with so little effort at a time when governments should be pulling together internationally to put an end to this global financial crisis. I think the UK Government has done this for purely selfish and corrupt reasons.
This story merits further investigation or better still a public enquiry. The UK Governments has acted in it's own self interest - it's abominable behaviour should be fully scutinised - clearly this behaviour has NOT been in the interest of the UK populus or the world economy. It has damaged relations with Iceland and offshore neighbours. The UK Government have made matters considerably worse by putting politics ahead of viable economic policy and meddling in matters that it clearly didn't understand and didn't think through properly.
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I would like to draw your urgent attention to our following dilemma, We are in a situation where we have invested cash totaling £391,152.00 through Friends Provident International in an offshore wrapper. This deposit has subsequently been placed with Kaupthing Singer and Friedland on the Isle of Mann, as follows £125,000.00 on one year fixed deposit to mature 25th April 2009, another £125,000.00 one year fixed deposit to also mature 25th April 2009 and £141,152.00 on a three month rolling deposit maturing 25th October 2008. As you are fully aware K S and F bank have had all of their assets frozen. We have been told that we are being treated as a "corporate" client, therefore have no guarantee of any monies, even including the first 50 k compensation from the FSA.
We have never been made aware that we had status as a corporate client. We are just a local tax paying British family, who have worked and saved hard for our future retirement and our children's well being.We have always paid every single penny of our taxes in the UK. We have placed cash on general deposit for the best rate available. It would appear that we are being put in the same category as local councils, police,charities and other pension funds. These organizations are having representation for recoveries of money, albeit, still ongoing. We have no such representation, we are all alone with nowhere to go, trying to work out how best to recover our money. We have watched on TV, Mr Gordon Brown and Mr Alistair Darling, make the statements that no UK depositors have lost money and will do, ' what ever is necessary,' to recover depositors monies. As it stands at the moment, we will lose everything.
I am a UK citizen,not, "a tax dodging person, in a tax haven, in the middle of the Irish sea," as indicated by the Chancellor.
My wife and I are totally distraught, we are putting on a brave face in front of the children, but, at 12 years old, our twin girls can sense something is seriously wrong. I am now under medication from my GP.
We are not financial people and have genuinely relied on our independent financial advisor (who has done everything he can to help and keep us informed) but we have nowhere to go, we don't know what to do, we are sick with worry. Please,I implore you, can you help us with any representation that may help retrieve our money? This is a,'cry for help.' This surely is a,"cross party" problem.No one deserves to go through what we are going through.We have seen all other UK residents get their money back.Please don't tell me, it is an Isle of Man problem.
How will it look for all those who have lost their entire life's savings, to then be on UK benefits? This will happen,despite the Chancellor and PM saying, it's the Isle of Man jurisdiction and HMG cannot get involved. HMG then, have no choice, but to support us.What a completely absurd situation.
If HMG have no jurisdiction,why is the Treasury holding £550 million of KSF IOM monies?The court orders specifically detail, that approval from the Treasury must be sought with regards to these funds.If they are not the UK Treasury funds as the Chancellor has stated, why can't they be returned to KSF IOM? This will then, put all depositors funds, safely back with us all and no need for UK benefits.Now isn't that justice?
We feel that we are totally innocent victims in this current financial climate and don't seem to have the support of anybody at the moment. Hopefully my wife and I can look to you for support and understanding, in what we see, as a completely unforgivable situation.
Please, don't let HMG abandon us.
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I am British and have being living abroad for many years. For almost 20 years I held account with Derbyshire Building Society IOM - a loyal customer. Collecting together proceeds from a house sale in the UK, and, not being permitted to open a UK account, I deposited my money in the IOM branch. My 'pension fund', on which I pay tax (on interest) at 20% sat there untouched - safe. Then the Derbyshire sold to what they said was a solidly guaranteed bank (did not mention Iceland) - Kaupthing Singer Friedlander IOM.
In September my wife asked me, after seeing news reports about the credit crisis, is our money safe? Of course I said but I did check. Credit ratings had fallen from their peak and I decided to move my funds. This is a process - to open an account you need notarised passport, proof of address and then a long wait for a reply and an account number.
When I finally gave instructions to transfer I called the bank to confirm - no one answered the phone. So October 7 I flew to the IOM. Arriving on the 8th, I learned from the taxi driver, as I raced to the bank, that it had closed.
Since then I have had to face the fact that I have lost money that I may never see again. Even if I get the compensation amount I will still lose a large sum that I had kept for my pension and occasionally to supplement my meagre income.
I did not make any rash decisions or chase high interest rates just put my money with a UK building society in a secure offshore centre - not because I wanted to bank in the IOM but because I had to.
Now, the IOM branch of KSF was fine - solvent no problems. But it sent 550m of depositors money to KSF UK and when the UK put KSF UK into administration - the UK adminstrators claimed the money. Go to the website www.kaupthingsingers.co.uk where the administrators say the bank has not ceased to trade and its 'business as usual' - but they have our money and they refuse to return it just as it was deposited - it sounds like bad business to me and I am ruined.
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First of all my sincere thanks to the BBC for keeping our plight alive in the public's eyes.
The first thing I notice as my wife and I plough through this nightmare is the utter contempt in which our elected government holds us and how it continues to perpetrate its negative campaign against offshore savers as rich, tax evaders. This successful strategy by those we entrust our country to means that we depositors are fighting a continual uphill battle to justify ourselves.
The vast majority of us are not rich. We all pay our taxes. When I'm having a better day, it strikes me as amusing that the Government is happy to wash its hands of me as it labels me a tax cheat but you can rest assured that should I actually make any money, the UK Government would be after its pound of flesh quicker than a vulture on a carcass.
For anyone reading this, I am a life-long tax payer. In fact it would be wonderful to get hold of a copy of all my tax contributiions right up to the present day that I can post on a 50 foot banner in front of Downing Street so that Darling and Brown would be forced to admit that they have it wrong.
In any case, we don't want charity from our insipid government, we want back the money that was frozen in the UK by that same, insipid government. They may or may not have a legal obligation but if not certainly a moral obligation to put right the damage they caused to their own citizens. For all the UK citizens reading this, do you think of the UK as comprising a moral, caring society? If so, read some of the stories of the people who have lost everything they own in this debacle through no fault of their own and see how you feel afterwards.
I've read hundreds of such hard-luck stories in my time and thought 'yeah but there must be some blame on your side as well'. Is that the case here? No, absolutely not. Our only crime was to place our money in a deposit account only to have it taken away by our own government. The solution is simple and it will not cost the tax payers (which includes us all) a penny. Just release our savings that you froze Mr Brown and Mr Darling and maybe, just maybe you can sleep easily in your beds at night. How you sleep now is beyond me.
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I put my life savings in KSF in August this year. Now its all gone. I'm living abroad and was often denied permission to open a UK savings account (and yes I've kept their bloody emails) so decided to bank in IOM. HMG should give back what they captured. The booty they engineered to retain within the admisitration funds of KSF UK should be returned forthwith. Kaupthing IOM was, according to the FSC a strong bank with good balance sheet and relatively good liquidity... until Darling topedoe'd the Icelandic banks on 8th October and put a perfectly viable bank into administration in order to "safeguard" some British savers without giving a monkeys that part of the money (a de facto tidy sum of 550m) will come from our savings in IOM. There's not even the Robin Hood element here - he's robbed from teachers, charity workers, government workers, nurses, ordinary people who have saved for their old age. Release that money Gordon please!
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The events of 8th October 2008:
At 10:10 on 8th Oct. Landsbanki assets were frozen by order of the treasury. 2 hrs 5 min later, at 12:15 on 8th Oct. KSFUK was put into administration and simultaneously the Kaupthing Edge accounts in KSFUK were ordered to be transferred to Dutch bank ING. The treasury's transfer order includes s27 which has the effect of forbidding the transfer of any assets from KSFUK to KSFIOM without the express permission of the treasury.The KSFUK court papers were and are sealed. Anti-terrorism legislation was used, and both treasury orders came into effect even before they had been put before Parliament.
I have yet to hear an explanation as to how this chain of events could have been anything other than pre-meditated and pre-planned, yet the government claims that the demise of KSFUK was nothing to do with them.The treasury alone has the power to permit the return of our money to KSFIOM but clearly refuses to do so, or to even discuss the matter in the open, but continues to hide behind its "not our jurisdiction/tax haven" smokescreen.
I call upon the UK Treasury Select Committee to fully investigate these events of 8th Oct. as well as the timing of events which lead up to this disastrous day and in which Alistair Darling is fully implicated. His ill timed and ill conceived actions have directly lead to the current demise of KSFIOM and caused untold financial loss and suffering to thousands of innocent depositors in what was, before 8th Oct, a perfectly sound bank.
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I invested pension savings taken from defrring income over a 38-year career..and deposited them, via my SIPP, in a fixed term bond, with the Derbyshire Building Society(on the Isle of Man, as the UK branch would not accept Pension SIPP accounts).
In Dec 2007, the Derbyshire was taken over by Kaupthing Singer and Freiedlander, and I was not offered the option to move my savings, as it was on a fixed term.
The UK Govt froze £550m of these funds when the Icelandic bank crisis erupted,
and I think they have stolen our money,
and need to tell us when they are paying
it back, as this act preciptated the bank going into administration on the IoM
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Thanks to the BBC for highlighting the injustice being perpetrated by the UK government. The whole timeline of events seems to point to an orchestrated plan that caused the Icelandic economy to collapse and the savers with KSFIOM to be considered collateral damage
All within a few hours on 8th Oct and before it was put to Parliament the treasury Froze Landsbanki assets, KSFUK was put into administration and simultaneously the Kaupthing Edge accounts in KSFUK were ordered to be transferred to Dutch bank ING. The treasury's transfer order includes s27 which has the effect of forbidding the transfer of any assets from KSFUK to KSFIOM without the express permission of the treasury. The KSFUK court papers were and are sealed. How could this have happened so quickly without much planning.
The UK was supposed to representing the IoM when negotiating with the IMF and Iceland and would not sanction the loan unless UK and Dutch interests were covered they had the chance to include the IoM but clearly failed to do so. The Government seems to take every possible opportunity to sacrifice us.
What possible reason can there be for the sealed papers? If the Government is not hiding anything then let them be unsealed. Why all this secrecy? And if this was not pre-meditated then how and why did the deal with ING come about so quickly. If the treasury funded it 100% then surely this money could have been paid directly to the savers or funded the pot for everyone – again is there more than meets the eye? Is this why the papers are sealed?
If only the Government would release the £557m (and it IS the government that has the last say on this despite Darlings denial at the Select Committee) – it would be the most equitable solution for everyone.
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Thanks to the BBC for providing this forum for those of us affected by the situation with KSFIOM to express our views.
My family is spending the festive season waiting to see if this second adjournment is anything other than a delaying tactic. Our only hope is that there really is something tangible going on behind the scenes. As we have had little or no information as to what is going on - other than that provided through the excellent Depositors' Action Group website - there is nothing to do but to keep lobbying and wait and see.
That so many thousands of UK citizens are in this situation is utterly beyond belief. For our government to take the stance of being saviours of UK savers whilst apparently ignoring our plight is unforgivable.
Without the return of our money we, like many others involved in this situation, will be in dire financial straits, looking forward to a retirement funded not by ourselves as we had planned, but by the UK government.
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Thank you for continuing to report on this sorry story. While continuing to hope against hope that the IOM will somehow manage to salvage something from this wreck which will allow us full recovery of our savings, I find it hard to imagine how this can possibly happen if the 557m GBP held in KSFUK is not returned to the IOM. It would be nothing short of a miracle.
My own story was posted on your earlier blog, so I will not repeat it here as nothing has changed except that we now have an even longer period of anxious waiting.
I remain convinced that, having indirectly caused the collapse of KSFIOM by their action in putting KSFUK into administration with instructions NOT to return funds to IOM, HMG have a strong moral if not a legal obligation towards us. Where theres a will theres a way. Unfortunately I fear there is no will. How I'd love to be proved wrong. Now that would really make my Christmas. What about it Gordon ?
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This is like living on the rack. I am a teacher in Africa but a British citizen who one day will hopefully return to England. KSF IOM was OK until its assets placed in the UK branch were frozen. This prolonged limbo saps energy and one wonders if that is the intention of delaying, delaying.....Thank you BBC for keeping our story and plight alive !!!
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For three years my wife and I planned a move to the UK so we could bring up our daughter in the land she wishes to be a part of. We worked hard, we saved and we eventually sold our house in MOscow last July. We placed the money in a bank in Moscow, but over time decided that we should move it to UK. As it was in dollars and we wished to keep it in dollars, we opened an account in September with KSF IoM and transferred the money.
I flew to UK in the first week of October to negotiate the purchase of the a house in England, within days KSF was in trouble and the IOM branch placed i liquidation because their funds had been frozen in UK.
My disgust at the actions of the UK Gov in this know no bounds, their refusal to give the hard earned deposits of savers back to the IoM branch is scandalous; their oft repeated remark about tax dodgers and tax havens is hypocritical in the extreme from a gov protecting the biggest money laundering tax haven on the planet. The City of London.
A major injustice has been dome to thousands of savers here and this needs to be brought into the public domain. The UK goiv has absolved itself of responsibility to British citizens working overseas, wrongly accused them of being tax dodgers and essentially stolen their money.
Amazing that the Speaker of the house of Commons can get headlines over an arrest of an MP, but thousands of innocent savers can't get a fair hearing isn't it?
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My husband and I have lost our entire savings in the Kauthing Singer and Friedlander debacle. These savings were destined to purchase us a permanent home in the UK. After the sale of our UK property several years ago, like many other depositors we found we were not able to open a savings account as we were no longer resident. We wished to maintain our savings in sterling hence the choice of the bank in the Isle of Man. We have paid taxes on the interest on our account according to the European Tax Savings Directive, as we have always paid our taxes, and resent highly Mr Darling's suggestion otherwise.
We rent a property and now with this substantial loss and with the demise of sterling our small UK pensions are not sufficient to cover our outgoings. We have had to close our business as overheads have now beome impossible. The only reason we will survive is through the good grace of our daughter and her husband. It makes me furious to think that not only have we been treated unjustly but so have two young people struggling to make their way in life.
Please BBC continue your good work. Explore the story of the UK government's use of terrorist legislation to freeze our bank's assets and uncover the disastrous repercussions on the lives of us depositors.
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How can Brown and Darling ignore the distress of UK citizens which it caused by pushing our bank into liquidation? That our bank, Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander, was not in the UK is just an excuse for refusing to act. Darling smashed our bank. Darling refuses to allow the release of our bank's money! That's all it would take to help 8,000 depositors.
We are UK citizens in need, deprived of our futures, begging for the return of our bank's money from our country, the UK.
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What is going on? How is it possible that in 2008, in a supposedly civilized world, government can step in and deny people access to their own money? I was left money by my father, assets which he'd accumulated in his lifetime and, in the order of things, passed on to his heirs. There's not a lot, but sufficient to keep poverty and its accompanying despair at bay when I retire in two years time. I was made redundant from my job in May, and have not yet been able to find a new one (and what are the chances that I will at the age of almost 62?). In addition, the closure of KSF IOM's accounts caught me in the middle of house renovations, a project I went into confident I would have the money to pay for it. I've had to take loans to finish off the building and to live - with no real idea how I will ever find myself out of debt.
What is the legal or indeed moral basis for denying hard-working citizens their own money? I want my money back. I want my life back.
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A man burgles a law-abiding household and then refuses to return the money based on the argument that he is not responsible for the house!! That is what Alastair Darling has done to KSF IoM. A pefectly well run bank is brought down as its assets sent to the UK are now frozen and held by Alastair Darling and the Treasury crew. He now uses the argument that Isle of Man is beyond his jurisdiction.
This probably does not concern most of the public as Mr Darling spins the erroneous story that they are probably 'tax dodgers'(in fact they are mainly ex-pats who as they work abroad cannot open UK bank accounts and do pay tax). The public may be more interested when they realise that alot of the depositors were UK charities and that Mr Darling has frozen their contributions to charities doing excellent work. They may be even more concerned to learn that many insurance companies and pension funds had bonds with KSFIoM and that their pension and life assurance lump sums are no longeer worth what they thought they might be.
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Reading these sad stories makes me cry. How can this horror be allowed to happen? Messrs Brown and Darling proudly announce that ALL British savers will be protected 100% but this is a lie. They are protecting people who put their money in UK based banks but not those who had to put their money offshore for various reasons.
These are BRITISH SAVERS so why are we not being treated in the same way as the others?
My money was in Kaupthing only because I did as HMG advised and split my deposits to be within the guaranteed level. If I hadn't been told to do this my money would have been in one UK account and, had that establishment failed, I would have got all my money back not just the guaranteed part. So i am being penalised for being "good". Well those days are over.
Messrs Brown and Darling are ruining our country, I will personally do my best to stop them doing this and get them out of their positions of power which they have done nothing but abuse. I'd like to see them spend just one day in the shoes of the people they have turned their back on. May you both rot in hell.
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Thank you BBC for providing this forum to keep the story alive.
As a long term British Expat may I add my name to your ever increasing list of KSF IoM depositors that feel we are being deserted by HMG in our hour of need.
Please call Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling back to your program and ask them to answer the hundreds of questions that have been posted on this formum.
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We need the media to highlight the plight of KSFIOM depositors and raise the profile. My tale of woe is that on the advice of my financial adviser I invested a considerable amount of hard-earned money in an investment bond with AXA Isle of Man. This was in order to help pay for my elderly mother to spend the remainder of her days in a residential care home, because the Government won't pay for that! I had no awareness of the fact that a large proportion of it was invested with Singer and Friedlander although by the time I found this out it was academic as there was nothing I could do. I was only aware of the situation in October on receipt of a letter from PWC - this and one other letter is the only communication I have received from them. Even then my adviser assured me the funds were 100% safe but in the unlikely event they were not, I would be fully compensated. We all know how wrong this is.
I am still absolutely incredulous at the British Government's actions at causing this problem and the seeming conspiracy of silence surrounding the fact that we depositors stand to lose our hard-earned savings. What is the British Government doing in its discussions with Iceland and the IMF (and other parties) to ensure the return of 100% of funds to British citizens depositing with KSFIOM - it is after all the UK Government's responsibility to represent IOM in matters of foreign affairs. I feel totally abandoned by the Government and the FSA and physically sick when I allow myself to think that I might have lost so much money which seems to have disappeared down a financial black hole. I cannot bear to countenance the consequences of this loss for my mother and myself. Pressure needs to be put on the Government to act and act speedily and explain why ALL UK taxpayers have NOT been protected as a result of the Icelandic banking collapse. Please expose their actions with an in-depth investigation. We just want OUR money returned. We are not millionaires who have sought a tax haven.
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My wife and I are two of the 8,000 KSFIOM depositors whose life / retirement savings have been summarily seized by the UK Government. We are grateful to the BBC for their interest and help in bringing our plight to the larger UK public.
The ostensible reasoning of Government in seizing our savings echoes that of the Americans during their time in Vietnam, who would “destroy a village to save it”, presumably, from Communism. Now, in 2008, we have Messrs Brown and Darling “seizing our money to protect UK depositors”. Now that the Icelandic government and people have been suitably humbled and humiliated, what plans, if any, does the Brown / Darling government have to return our savings to us? But then, could it be that it was never part of their plan to return our savings from the outset?
As most depositors are ordinary British citizens, one wonders just who the “terrorists” were that prompted the Brown / Darling government to resort to anti-terrorist legislation to seize our funds? Perhaps we misunderstand the intent of that legislation. Perhaps it actually enables government to circumvent the laws and ancient customs of the land so as to enable the terrorising of individuals and groups targeted by Government for its own political and economic gain. What have we depositors, as a group, done to warrant this sort of special treatment?
Try to imagine the Brown / Darling government taking action against a real terrorist group? Of course not – they are afraid of them. The current Government have attempted to appease them by allowing increasing numbers of immigrants from their countries to settle in the UK and through taking measures such as eliminating discussion of the Holocaust from the school curriculum because it, presumably, will offend their sensibilities. It appears as though the bullies amongst the UK government are, themselves, afraid of the larger, more powerful bully. Seen in this context, the action against KSFIOM depositors makes more sense. The bully engages in bullying because he can.
So, at the end of the day, to make sense of the KSFIOM depositor situation, we are prompted to ask, as the police normally do at the beginning of an investigation, “Who gains?” Certainly not KSFIOM depositors. Having notionally “saved” our savings from the “terrorists” (The Bogeyman, themselves?), when and how will the Brown / Darling government return our life / retirement savings to us? Surely, as our champions and protectors, they will want to bask in the glow of our gratitude and praise.
Readers who are personally unaffected by the seizure of our funds may think that our plight has nothing to do with them, that is, until it is their turn. If Government can use anti-terrorist legislation to seize our life / retirement savings, what could they do to you if you are unfortunate enough to be to appear in their crosshairs?
Happy Christmas, Messrs Brown and Darling.
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If or when you have Alistair Darling/Gordon Brown back on your programme, there is only one question to ask - When will HMG unfreeze our life savings and send them back to where they belong ?
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In a recent treasury committee meeting, the Minister of Justice, Lord Bach, stated that his transfer of responsibility for the case of KSF (IoM) to the Treasury was not an abdication of his role. This is a conflict of interest since Darling is intent on securing anything and everything to reimburse the UK for compensating depositors in the Iceland banks. How can the Treasury represent the Isle of Man in its recovery of monies from Iceland when it is holding onto GBP550 of our money in the UK?
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I thank you Mr Brown and Nulab for showing me the error of my ways. My principle error is one of achieving a better education than that normally attained in the sixties to kids from the North East pit villages, a 5th then even 6th form coupled with night school simply to achieve Naval scholarship and university entrance, then to further compound that initial error with continued service in the Navy, the MOD and NHS as well as other government institutions. Quite clearly Mr Brown had I not furthered my education, I would not have been able to attain these respectable positions and employment in both my MOD and civilian life. As such I would not have been in a position to have either the money set aside nor the knowledge to try and ensure a reasonable retirement in a foreign country free of monetary worries with a small business generated income. This I quite clearly see now as being the fundamental error of my ways and a flaw to my character.
Indeed the lesson you and NuLab have taught me is a simple one, I should have left the state school system as was expected of me and my kind at 15, made the quick trip to the local Labour Exchange as it was known then, signed on the dotted line to receive my state unemployment benefits, then after a couple of years or so move into my state provided accommodation, researched and claimed the many other state handouts I would have been entitled too and lived an uneventful but probably very pleasant life, up to and including my final moments as the last sod of earth is placed on a final resting place, all provided for by the state system.
Yes Mr Brown and NuLab I do thank you for all you have taught me, you have in a few short weeks reduced me to a well educated, highly experienced unemployable homeless pauper, unable now to even claim any of those state benefits.
A merry Christmas too you Mr Brown and Mr Darling please enjoy entertaining your families. I and many others like me, that you have taught this very same lesson too can't. We have no home, we have no income, we have no money left. NOR DO WE FEEL WE ARE UK CITIZENS.
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I work at a university abroad, after retiring from a British University some years ago. I invested my life savings in the Derbyshire Building Society in the Isle of Man because the branch in my home town advised me to move money to the Isle of Man as I was then resident in another country. Derbyshire sold itself to Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander, Isle of Man.
My savings included my university retirement pension lump sum, the cash I had built up bit by bit over very many years in the Prudential, and the money from my husband's accounts after he died. All those savings were earned in England, and all had UK tax paid on them.
Now that money has gone and, like others who deposited their money in Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man), I face a bleak future when I leave my present job.
What makes it so very galling is that the Isle of Man branch was functioning well, and would probably still be doing so, if the UK Government had not stepped in. until
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What a patheticly incompetent Government and Parliament the UK has.
Many years ago most of the World looked up to Britain as a bastion of what is right.
Not any more. This Brown/Darling triggered catastrophy is acting as the last straw.
Do they think the rest of World leaders are stupid? Do they not realize that they are being made to look very foolish by the lies they are spinning about ensuring British Citizens dont lose a penny while the facts are that it loosm like some have already taken their lives, some are on the verge and most will lose everything.
My real question is for the constituents who elected Brown and Darling. Why?
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I too am suffering from the Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander saga. I had a one year Derbyshire Manx Bond from September 2007 which I very unfortunately allowed to roll over a year later. It contained a life time's savings of small amounts with the Prudential, my lump sum on retirement from a Midands University, and money from my husband's bank and building society accounts after he died. All of it was from taxed income earned in the UK.
When I moved to work abroad after retirement, the UK Inland Revenue told me I had to get the double taxation from completed by the tax office in the country where I now work. This I did, and then had to move my savings offshore, as has already been well documented by others who could not open a UK bank account from overseas.
If these savings go, there is a hard time ahead. Like others in the same position with the Isle of Man Kaupthing bank (which described itself as 'Northern European') I welcome with open arms any publicity which may help us to get our money back.
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UKGovInept - drop me a line through the DAG, If this 1K interim payment comes off do you want to try and get back to UK.
Apologies BBC - not really a post for here but hope it gets through the moderator and on to the intendent recipient.
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I'd first like to say thank you to the BBC for taking an interest in the plight of the IOM depositors. Since we have been deserted by our own government, we really need your help to try to make sure we are not ignored or forgotten.
The Chancellor's attempts to brand us all tax-evaders are a disgrace as was his suggestion our situation was all our own fault for investing in an offshore jurisdiction.
Jeffrey Owens, Director of the Centre for Tax Policy Administration at the (OECD) Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, told Reuters: “Only seven centres - Aruba, the Dutch Antilles, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey - were fully compliant with OECD transparency standards”.
But equally, the Chancellor is fully aware of the near impossibility of opening UK accounts when living as an expatriate.
The lack of response to the questions asked of the Chancellor and the Treasury by a large number of MPs of all parties is also disgraceful. What sort of democracy is it that can brazenly ignore elected representatives with total impunity?
When one causes grave, but presumably unintentional, damage, you'd think repairing it as quickly as possible would be a priority. Any other response smacks of at least evasion of responsibility if not deliberate intent.
Surely the British government should be doing all it can to assist with a solution to this problem?
Instead, right from the time of the Chancellor's wilful perversion of his recorded conversation with the Iceland Treasury, the catalogue grows:
•clause 27 gives The Treasury control over the return of assets to the IOM
•the Justice Committee is obliged to point out the conflict of interest in the Justice Dept handing over responsibilty to the Treasury in representing the IOM's interests
•The Treasury controlled FSCS uses tactical voting to block KSFIOM, the second largest creditor, from the KSFUK creditors' committee.
My retirement fund is destroyed after a lifetime of saving from a teacher's salary.
40 years as an expatriate; one year of retirement. And the rest of our lives ruined for my wife and myself. So many others in a similar or even worse position.
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Thanks Skintagain, but - and please dont read this is as unappreciative - i see the 1K as laughable. After 3 months, 1K? What are we supposed to do with that??? Get a cheap hotel room for a week to temporarly take our minds off things? Increadible.
It would probably pay for a flight back to the UK but then what would we do? Family there currently live on friends sofa's so another body (me) would make things actually harder there. Then there is the logistics of how the 1K will get to depositors - we have not got a sterling account anymore (it was with KSF) and cant open one without any money to put in it. The 1K thing is actually just laughable; they might as well have just sent us all (again, how would they contact us all? Has Mike Simpson got authority to dish out our names and addresses?) a few bags of sweets for Christmas. I really cant allow myself to be forced back to the UK; the sheer level of contempt I feel for that Country (i once loved) is really overpowering; i just cant do it.
I actually going to start moving up the coast to warmer weather (lorry drivers permitting) today. The cold spells are the main problem now so going to warmer places may well help.
Thankyou skintagain, you - along with a few others - demonstrate that there are genuinely kind people in the world. Just a shame it is overly outweighed by the nasty uncaring.
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An idea that is currently be investigated is having Mr Darling arrested for theft. Over 8000 people have had nearly £860M stolen from them by this Government led by Mr Darling. If the police are unwilling then i appears a citizens arrest is in the offing.
I am still bewildered that a UK Government can act so incompetently and with total disregard for its citizens.
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Aside from the despair this whole issue is causing it is the hypocracy of the situation in particular that grates, as the Manx Herald article recently pointed out, it’s one rule for G Brown and another rule for IoM!
This is all about the Lehmans collapse which some might say was the incident that brought the banking system down.
On the web are at least 2 reports of Gordon Brown supporting the return of "Lehman UK" Deposits from "Lehman USA".
So, when the position is reversed, why is he not ensuring the return of "KSFIoM" Deposits by "KSF UK".
Report A
Labour Party Conference - Manchester September 2008
Lehman's European headquarters which is based in London often remitted money
from its London HQ to its parent company in New York where the money kept
overnight accrued interest and sent back the following morning to London.
On Sunday when Lehman filed for bankruptcy, Lehman Europe found that it was
down by $8 billion as the money failed to arrive leaving the employees and
creditors high and dry.
Prime Minister Gordon who would be visiting the US on Wednesday said he will
push the US to help return $8 billion from failed investment bank Lehman
Brothers to its staff in Britain.
Speaking at the Labour's annual conference in Manchester he said, "We are
asking and working with the American government to get that money back to
pay salaries, not of high-flying financiers, but of cleaners and people who
are computer operators who would otherwise be denied their money."
Report B Published: September 20, 2008 19:33h
Labour Party Conference - Manchester September 2008
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Saturday he was pushing the
United States to help get $8 billion from the failed U.S. investment bank
Lehman Brothers to its staff in Britain.
Administrators winding up Lehman's European business have questioned why $8
billion was transferred to New York just before the bank collapsed. There
have been fears among Lehman's 4,500 staff in London they may not get their
final pay packets.
"We are asking and working with the American government to get that money
back to pay salaries, not of high-flying financiers, but of cleaners and
people who are computer operators who would otherwise be denied their
money," Brown told delegates at the ruling Labour party's annual conference.
So as far as I and others are concerned this is a contradiction terms from the man who syas “I feel the peoples pain’, and is always preaching his version of ethics.
So as far as I can see this is another cynical action by a Government and aPM that seem to be devoid of ethical standards and will do anything to stay in power. They flagrantly ignore questions form elected officials and public on this matter, they contradict themselves on the few uttering's they have made. Its a despicable performance from a spin led, ideologically bankrupt group of politicians.
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How has it come to this that so many ordinary- yet not ordinary people have been reduced to these straits.
People who have striven and worked all their lives reduced to begging (literally)and pleading with a SILENT government for answers.
12 weeks have passed and no explanation has been given by HMG why British citizens have been ROBBED of their life savings.
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Dear BBC,
May I refer you to Expatsteve's comments above?
Would you please ask Gordon Brown to answer question posed by the posting.
Surely 'what's good for the goose is good for the gander'.
HMG could return the GBP +/_ 600M if they wished, it only requires the political will to do so.
As GB has recently commented regarding the global credit problem - "extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions".
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9th Jan
3 months and one day since all Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander depositors had their lives blown apart.
We are surprised that all we have lost until now is our entire life savings and our futures. The depression is constantly unbearable.
The Government has stolen our lives and constantly ignore our pleas for the return of our hard earned, honestly earned and fully tax paid savings. The Monarchy ignored us (to date), thank you BBC for not ignoring us.
People are still under the misapprehension that our money was 'saved' by ING. The Isle of Man savers have been robbed. All guarantees have been erased. We have nothing but another court day of 29th Jan to look forward to. Which by then will have held us all in purgatory for almost FOUR MONTHS.
We were strong at the beginning, consoling ourselves that at least we had our health. Had being the operative word. If OUR monies aren't returned soon we may no longer need them, we won't be here to reclaim them.
TO the UK Government - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you have any shred of human decency - give the savings back to all the savers - NOW before it's too late.
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Where this twaddle about tax exile comes from beats me. Non-resident Britons with assets in sterling tend to bank is the Isle of Man because of the reluctance of banks in the UK to open accounts without a UK address. My income and capital gains have failed to meet the UK tax threshold for many years. Most of the KSFIoM victims are ex-Derbyshire Offshore or ex-Singer and Friedlander small depositors who are more likely to order their 'Rolls' from the bakery than the car showroom.
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Thank you BBC for giving us depositors in KSFIoM a chance to keep our issues 'alive'. Please continue to follow up on the issues already mentioned by others on this forum.
I urge you to have Gordon Brown and/or Alastair Darling on your program and please ask them amongst other things - why when Mr Brown is quoted as supporting the return of Lehman UK funds from Lehman USA, why is he not now ensuring that the assets of KSFIoM are returned from KSF UK? (re expatsteves' comment #46above) When is he going to unfreeze our savings so we can get back our lives?
Why are the court papers sealed, and what is the government hiding?
Just read previous comments and those on the DAG website to see how this has devastated the lives of so many people - the vast majority of whom are (like myself) hardworking British citizens who had little choice but to bank in the Isle of Man and whose savings were the result of years of living prudently in order to save for our now postponed retirement. At least we can postpone our retirement although not for long - others cannot even do that.
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UKGovInpet, if you see this check your email, we're trying to pout somebody in touch locally with you. Take care we don't forget you
Steve
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Months after the event depositors feel more and more betrayed by the UK Government which refuses to deal with our questions about the frozen assets of Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man) bank in the UK. This is a grave injustice and unlikely to be resolved by the Isle of Man Government. Many like my husband and myself have lost all their savings. Ours were to buy us a permanent home in the UK. With no home of our own and only pitiable pensions on which to subsist the future looks very bleak.
Thank you BBC for your continuing interest in our plight. Please put pressure on the UK Government to explain itself and stop its mealy mouth prattle about doing their best for the people.
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Dear Sir we are desperate to find some one who will fight our corner, my wife and I are expats, we live in Spain. We first started banking with the Derbyshire IoM in 1993 in the tail end of 2007 we started receiving letters telling us they where selling out to KSF IoM. We had complete trust in the Derbyshire. Surely they must have had some inkling that all was not what it seems with KSF, or did they just take the money and run. We have/had all our life savings tied up in IoM and rely on the interest for day to day living. Our situation is desperate. We are not tax dodgers, although we pay tax in Spain. We worked and paid our taxes and national insurance contributions for more than forty years. Surly there is some one in the UK who will watch our backs. In the letters from Kaupthing Singer and Frielander they state categorically that the parent bank in the UK will honor all deposits. The thought that if anything happens to me that my wife may be destitute fills me with horror
Barry Blockley.
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I so do hope that one day, Brown, Darling, Pearson or Sants will read these comments.
History is being written at the moment and none of the four rougues above come out very well at all. Not is the slightest.
The IOM Government are at least trying. The £1000 'early payment' scheme may be laughably inadequate and quaint but at least it is something. The discredited, ragingly incompetent and pathetic Government the UK mainland currently has to put up with are happy to watch its citizens suffer; if I were a Christian I'd be highly embarressed about Browns religious claims.
It becomes more evident each day that the UK Government knew full well that UK Citizens would be appalingly affected but their actions. They calculated that by lying (choice of offshore/onshore etc...) and pushing the line that we were Tax Dodgers they would be able to quieten us, claim the moral high ground and finally use the money they froze pay off the Treasury for the money it used to payoff UK depositors. Unfortunately the UK Government grossly under-estimated the power of the Internet (the ww.ksfiomdepositors.org site is really gaining the power of publicity to bring down this Government) and the galvanising effect of taking comfortably-off families' (most ordinary folk who made their little pots through simple hard word) and destroying them.
Mr Brown. The Equitable fiasco has demonstrated that you were far far removed from the 'Prudent' chancellor you always claimed to be. Now we will prove that you are in fact a dishonest and incompetant man; an sooner rather than later.
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This latest press release from the depositors website makes depressing reading. It looks more and more like the Financial Services Commission on the IoM is little more than an exclusive Gentlemans drinking club with no more an interest in regulating financial services on the Island as making money for themselves!!
The UK Government may be the primary cause of all this - and their do nothing admit nothing pretend its nothing to do with us approach is simply dishonest - but the Tynwald and IoM FSC are starting to decidedly out of their depth big time!
All the time, thousands of ordinary people are starting to lose their health over this. Some - such
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Ha! Sorry all was testing the blog.
Sometimes you will get a "Your comment contains some HTML that has been mistyped. Data at the root level is invalid on line 1" error. This is because you have put in an ampersand ("&").
Do not use ampersands in blg text.
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I really did respect the IoM Government for at least trying to do something. However, the £1000 joke (if you - as i am - are in real hardship due to this fiasco, then £1000 after 3 months - nearly 2 on the streets now - is more like a stage farce than real help!) coupled with the actual facts starting to come from the depositors digging is starting to ring very loud alarm bells. It seems that every single other financial centre in the world is ensuring individuals are protected (yes, in the UK Governments case by robbing Peter to pay Paul - but Brown and Darling have already proven their cracking dishonesty anyway) EXCEPT the Isle of Man. If i had money on the Isle of Man - with ANY bank - i would be seriously concerned about its safety. If there is a run on the IoM banks then the IoM WILL collapse. Seems strange that the IoM Government is doing nothing to bolster confidence in IoM banks whatsover!!
The latest depositors Press Release starts to ask some very serious questions! And all the time, thousands of British peoples health deteriorates due to this. Just because the UK Government are in denial it doesnt mean it isn't happening; i am damn proof of that as are thousands of other hard-working, tax paying, innocent Brits. Just remember, many of us didnt want to bank 'offshore' anyway but were forced to by ill thoughtout and flawed UK 'ANTI'-terrorist legislation. Mr Bin Laden must be laughing all the way to his cave!
PRESS RELEASE 18 JANUARY 2009
Who knew what when?
Who did what when?
Who can do something now?
Simple questions but complicated answers it seems…at least when Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man) KSFIOM is the subject of the conversation.
Three months on and these simple questions have yet to be answered.
British and Irish Governments have been keen to protect their financial services sectors, recognising the crucial role they will play in the road to recovery from the recession we find ourselves in.
But where is the IOM Government in all this?
A few basic statistics should make the answer very simple for them (1):
80,058 people live on the Isle of Man
41,793 are economically active
Insurance, banking, finance and business services are the biggest employers on the island employing 20% of all men in employment and 27% of all women in employment.
There is over £50billion on deposit on the island.
When a local bank loses its licence due to the actions of the UK Government, the IOM Government, the FSC, the FSA and the local directors of the bank you would think that direct action would be taken to rectify the situation as soon as possible….not in this case.
The only people currently paying for this are the 10,800 unfortunate depositors.
Other Governments have been quick and decisive in responding to their banks in crisis, guaranteeing deposits and ensuring ongoing protection for the industry sector.
In contrast, the IOM Government still can’t decide how its own Depositors Compensation Scheme might work. Good job that wasn’t evident in May 2008 when the island’s status as Best International Finance Centre was announced.(2) At the time it was noted that the judges cited its "transparent and flexible regulation" as a key factor.
Transparent and flexible may not be two adjectives depositors would use to describe a regime that procrastinates in times of crisis and fails to act to save its reputation, its depositors or even the local islanders’ livelihoods.
There is a hole of £550m to fill – massive, unthinkable in the old world of just a few months ago, but today when compared to the current UK Government’s second tranche payment it looks more like pocket money.
This outlay would be the equivalent of £6,870 per islander and this may sound a lot but think of it this way….
Compared with the estimated £33,000 per taxpayer (3) that Gordon Brown’s latest scheme is costing UK taxpayers, is £6,870 so much to pay to save a reputation and economy that stands on the brink of permanent disaster?
While the UK is committing more than two-thirds of its annual GDP to preserve employment in this sector, such a move would cost the IOM just half of its GDP. And since this represents the maximum loan required, if one assumes that at least half of the £550m will be returned from KSFUK, the figure reduces to just 25%.
If that’s what it takes to preserve this key IOM employment sector one has to say to Alan Bell and the rest of the IOM government ministers wrestling with this crisis - is this so much to ask?
The message to the IoM politicians is clear…..do the right thing for islanders’ jobs and depositors’ money. Preserve the economy of the IOM and loan KSFIOM the money it needs to repay depositors in full. The alternative is unthinkable for all.
Then the Best International Finance Sector can get back to what it does best.
And 10,000+ people can get on with their lives.
(1) 2008 Digest of Economic and Social Statistics, Economic Affairs Division, Isle of Man Treasury
(2) Daily Telegraph 9 July 2008
(3) Daily Telegraph 16 January 2009
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Question for the UK Government. Why is Mr Darling not replying to the hundreds of letters he is receiving from MP's?
No-one can even start to plan how to get the thousands of desperate (in some cases, now destitute) people affected their money back until the UK Government gives back the £570Million it is has taken from the bank they banked with. Thousand of British lives and STILL this Labour Government treats them with contempt and nastyness.
Almost every single MP in Parliament has now written (in some cases many times) to Alistair Darling asking for some clarification on the matter so that they can, in turn, reply to the thousands of email/letters/faxes they have received from those affected and their family/friends. Not one single MP has had any reply from Darling. Why is that? What is Darling hiding? People are suffering. Yet still a stony silence from a tainted Labour Government. Not to even reply to correspondence from MP's is unheard of in UK Politics and starts to raise very serious questions about this Labour Administration that only history is going to be able to answer. Labour have let a lot of British people down very badly; and the voting British will not forget.
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Wandering the streets, missing family, thinking about what has happened, crying sometimes. But most of all, trying to work out why Ian Pearson MP said what he said (the lies said in Parliament about non-domiciles having no reason to use offshore banks, on 6th November), why Hector Sants (FSC) made his seemingly stupid comments about sueing IFA's and why the wall of silence from the perpertrators - Brown and Darling.
Then it hit me! Brown wants the Isle of Man. He wants the Isle of Man to be another Shire; part of England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland!! It makes total sense. If the depositors do not get full uninhibited access to 100% of their money very soon, banking in the IoM will collapse; already Ex-pats and other non-doms are starting to make hasty withdrawls. However, the IoM only has 80,000 people living there and that means it is impossible for the IoM Government - Tynwald - to give 100% guarantees to prop up the banking sector. Either Tynwald goes cap in hand to the UK Government, which will then demand the IoM becomes a full signed up member of the UK. Or IoM falls into poverty as banking there collapses.
Very crafty Mr Gordon Brown. And absolutely despicable; there are other ways to try and show you are better than Blair than to wreck lives while scoring political points. To Pearson, Darling, Sants and the rest; shame on you for bowing to Brown. Or did he offer you guys a peerage or maybe even a knighthood? Brown is dragging the UK through the gutter and all because he still feels inferior to Mr Blair. How sad.
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As time drags on and the dark clouds of a deeply setting in depression starts to really take it's toll (aching joints, a feeling of disappointment whenever waking up, guilt in failing my family, chronic lethargy etc...) we really see the cost of this Gordon Brown Labour Government and the real worth of the organisations that are in place to supposedly regulate an industry that deals with money.
As the deafening silence from 10 & 11 Downing street, coupled with the damaging lies told to Parliament (by Ian Pearson on the 6th Nov - that depositors in offshore banks could have used onshore banks. I repeat, not without a UK mainland address could an onshore account be opened) and the inexplicable actions of Darling in taking away our everything and refusing to give it back (which was the root cause of ALL of this), really starts to bite, the long term damage starts to eat at your very soul.
The IoM government (the Tynwald) is now even trying to use the dreadful tactic of divide and conquer by dangling the bait of promising to pay the people with lower exposure their full money while ignoring the many who have lost everything. Almost daily, we hear of dodgy schemes by law firms (AlixPartners for one) which are designed more to enrich the firm's shareholders rather than the depositors. 'DCS', 'SoA', Pre-Payment etc... All cleverly designed to make it seem the IoM is in control and all is well, but the horrible truth is that the Isle of Man government (and so call Financial regulators) have not got a clue what to do. And all the time the clock ticks and lives continue to be irreparably damaged.
The UK Treasury, the Opposition parties, UK media? Where are they all? Why are they not supporting us? Simple truth is that we are seen as 'Tax Dodgers' by using IoM banks and therefore we deserve what we get. I can only say that is simply not true; I was forced to use an Isle of Man bank as no UK bank would let me open a bank account after Cahoot & Natwest etc forcibly closed my accounts because i no longer had a UK Mainland address. To say i am disappointed in the UK Parliament is a chronic understatement; bewildered that MP's can be so cruel to the very people they are supposed to represent is more the feeling i have; I still cant believe that my MP, Andrew Turner, should ignore all the correspondence I sent him only to send a political Christmas Card saying ‘Happy Christmas’ – that is the sort of MP the UK has and it is pathetic.
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I totally agree what the hell are they doing?
My conservative MP has stopped even acknowledging my mail my mail.
17 lousy dreadful desperate weeks have passed and all we have received is SILENCE and a Bunch of platitudes from the totally paralyzed Isle of Man government.
3RD is the Treasury Select Committee meeting at 9.45 am.
KSF depositors if you are in London go there its at Westminster and show our elected representatives some of the people they not only have deprived of their life savings but declared to be be fat cat tax dodgers.
How Mr brown and Mr Darling can you sleep at night?
I know we cant haven't slept for 17 long weary weeks .
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6 months have past and KSF IOM depositors are still without access to their savings.
Gordon Brown has stated that all jurisdictions should vouchsafe depositors, but appears that this was just media spin (again). The Isle of Man is a Crown Dependency for goodness sake, action is needed.
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What a disgrace - see http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org/
for more details.
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On April 9th. the Isle of Man High Court will finally consider whether the future of recovering KSFIOM depositors monies will be dealt with by a Scheme of Arrangement or via the process of liquidation.
Which ever route is chosen, the fact remains that the British Government confiscated two thirds of our bank's balance sheet when it seized c£557m of KSFIOM assets as it put KSFUK into Administration on 8th.October, 2008 and retained powers, quite exceptionally, under section 27 of Statutory Instrument 2008/2674 whereby no assets may be repaid to creditors by the UK Joint Administrators without the explicit permission of HM Treasury.
Irrespective of any IoM High Court direction to call a Scheme Meeting and the outcome of subsequent voting, the clarification and maximisation of 'London monies' return remains the single most important factor that will determine actual realisation of cash for depositors, especially HVDs.
Consequently, contacting MHK's to encourage HMG to intervene consistent with their Clause 27 reserved powers. and for the Isle of Man Government to press this dialogue is of the greatest importance.
There are 11,358 of us as customers of KSFIOM with some 14,059 accounts and total savings of £893,844,804 which we may not access and which are at risk Despite the British Government trying to present a view to the contrary, the Isle of Man is a well regulated and transparent financial centre.
I would ask you to urge the Chancellor to intervene with the UK Joint Administrators using his Clause 27 (SI 2008/2674) powers so that the inter-company sums and asset classes remaining are properly identified at KSFUK and that a quantified commitment be given to The Isle of Man Government for such assets to be returned in due course to the rightful control of the Joint Provisional Liquidators for KSFIOM .
There is no doubt that KSFUK balance sheet position is complex, but if a quantified commitment is given by HMG for the return of London seized assets for time ahead (the original figure was of the order $557m being two third's of our bank's balance sheet), the IoMG would in turn be able to ensure 100% recovery of KSFIOM savers money, which is Gordon Brown's cry for all jurisdictions world wide; and up until the British intervention on October 8th. 2008 KSFIOM was a solvent well run bank with no toxic debt and strong core ratios.
Furthermore, such a quantified commitment to return assets due KSFIOM would potentially allow a third party financial institution to step in and buy the residual business at KSFIOM thus opening up a greater range of possibilities for depositor and creditor recovery, ongoing business, and a multiplier effect into broader economic recovery.
All we need from London right now is an overt quantified commitment to return the lump of our bank's balance sheet locked up since October 8th. 2008 and over which the Chancellor has exceptional clause 27 reserved powers of return.
The House of Commons Treasury Select Committee has now published its report into the impact of the failure of Icelandic banks. Regarding the collapse of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (Isle of Man) Limited, the Committee has supported our calls for the UK and Isle of Man governments to work together to find a solution. The Treasury Committee has also agreed with many of the points I and others have raised, concluding that: the collapse of KSFIoM “was caused, in part, by steps taken by the UK Government to transfer deposits from the KSF UK branch to ING.”…..“the majority of those affected are not sophisticated, investors of high net worth who are somehow insulated from the losses they have incurred; and many people were “forced to deposit their money offshore, outside the protection of the Financial Services Authority, and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, as a direct result of the way in which Financial Services Authority regulations were interpreted in the UK”.
It concludes by “strongly urging the UK authorities to work with those of the Isle of Man and Guernsey to resolve these issues.”
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We are British savers that have lost in the KSF IOM fiasco - we have always paid our taxes, and have been abandoned by the Bristish Govt. We tried to withdraw our money on the 8th October before the bank ceased to trade - and despite the fact that the transfer was confirmed - the bank refused to honour the CHAPs payment.
We have been completely shafted.
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After the G20 summit the Isle of Man was one of the tax havens who were included on the 'fully compliant' list, which means, as I understand it, that they have various tax information exchange agreements in place. So I don't see how Gordon Brown and his Darling side kick can use the tax dodgers argument to sideline us from their obligations to look after British citizens.
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Expatrussia, comment no. 68, says it all. The solution to this shameful political punch in the guts is very simple. The HM Treasury should use their Clause 27 reserved powers to release the frozen funds to the KSFIOM liquidator provisional, so that these hard-earned savings can be returned to their rightful owners. The depositors are NOT tax-dodgers, how can we be with the enforced exchange of information between banks and tax authorities? After six months of delaying tactics, there is no excuse. HMG, it's up to you - play fair!
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AN OPEN LETTER TO G BROWN
Dear Mr Brown,
AN APPEAL FOR COMMON DECENCY
May I ask you, when you authorised the seizing and later break up of Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander Limited (KSFL) last October because the bank was deemed to be a threat to national financial stability, and to protect onshore UK onshore depositors in the bank, did you realise this also forced Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander Isle of Man Limited into administration?
Did you know that at the time the bank was very strong financially and was not materially exposed to Iceland? The reason for this was that the Isle of Man FSC, unlike the UK FSA - who stood by and allowed billions of UK funds to be invested in Icesave and hence in Iceland, with catastrophic results saw the crisis coming and acted to move £700m of the banks funds from Iceland back to the UK and KSFL.
Did you know that the Isle of Man banks net assets in KSFL are approximately £400m mostly in cash and short term securities, and that if the funds were returned to the Isle of Man all depositors could be repaid or the bank could be sold?. Indeed to begin with there were 15 expressions of interest in buying the bank.
Instead, we have had to endure 6 months of enormous uncertainty and anxiety whilst the Isle of Man authorities repeatedly contacted relevant UKauthorities but without result. Now we are asked to choose between a Scheme of Arrangement and Liquidation. Both will be costly and take a long time. The unknown is how much we will get back from the UK. Can you tell me why this should not be 100% of our property?
Did you know that our depositors number nearly 10,000 people mostly UK nationals, and that of the £840m value of deposits, more than half are savings including life savings of UK expatriate citizens resident in almost every county in the world?
I have worked in Russia for over 10 years in the construction industry, have a Russian wife and one little girl. In July last year I sold my business and house to return to UK. We deposited the proceeds, over US $ 722,500, in the Isle of Man bank in early September.
Why did we do that? Because no onshore bank would take our money because we were not resident in the UK. This is because of the anti money laundering laws. Every single overseas depositor has encountered the same problem. Can you imagine how we felt when our bank ceased trading and was put into administration?
Mr Brown, you are a man of compassion, I know. Please think of your citizens both at home and overseas that have become caught up in this crises.UK and EU citizens pay their taxes, Mr Brown. One lady has paid £606,106 over the years and is completely distraught at the prospect of loosing any portion of hard won savings, as we all are. You can intervene and order the release of our assets. There are no costs to the UK tax payer in this. And then the living hell which 10,000 people have had to endure for the past six months will be ended.
Yours sincerely,
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Well its 9 months now.
We are older and sadder.
We have been TOTALLY IGNORED by our government.
Now I know that my government is nothing more than a bunch of liars and thieves.
I see now that my MP and the rest of the immoral bunch were too busy ripping us his constituents off in expenses to give us the attention we merited meanwhile I who cost the UK government nothing and have paid a life time of taxes have nothing.
Thousands of letters later NO REPLY except from third rate PAs who send us out the same repetitive rubbish .
By the way Ms Macarthy Fry this means you. Yes you at the Ministry of Injustice cant you answer a straight question in the face of the hundreds of people who have written to you?
Where is your boss Mr Straw the man who came from the working people but who no longer listens to the working people.
Where is justice for the honest hard working citizen in this land?
Silence.
Our country is no longer a democracy but a place where justice is silent and non existent for honest British people who have tried to save for their old age and not be a burden on anyone.
For Shame.
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Its truly amazing how HMG ignores this issue. There have been leaked documents showing how badly Kaupting was administered; how share ramping was used; how misleading statements were issued to keep credibility and still the FSA and IoM regulators won't own up to the regulatory failure here. There has been to breaking of EU guidelines about how much of the KSF IoM money should have been in a single bank in the UK, 25% is the limit, over 50% was placed; we know the regulators were watching the Icelandic situation for many months prior to the demise and yet still the authorities will not stand up and be counted.
The depositors want an Inquiry into this affair so that the negligent attitude of the regulators on both sides of the water is exposed. The depositors want an Inquiry so that the conduct of the directors of all hues is exposed, from the 'bandit like attitude' of the Icelandic directors to the simple minded and gullible attitude of the IoM.directors.
Its truly extra ordinary how HMG hides form this, just what have they got to hide??
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Nearly a year on and the UK Government are well and truely mired in shame and grime. After Ian Pearson's lying to Parliament on the 20th of Nov 2008 (when he said there was no reason any British Citizen had to bank offshore) we have McCarthy-Fry (the lastest Treasury apologist) quietly sending letters to MP's saying that indeed it IS difficult to have a UK Bank account with no onshore address after all!!!
After a year, families have fallen apart and many many pensioners are still in a desperate situation after seeing all glimmers of hope fade. Darling has repaid his millionaire mates (Dave Whelan), popular (IE. Vote winning) charities and select public companies while the Treasury keep spouting the line that he has not got the power to do anything (even though he caused the disaster in the first place).
MP's have turned their backs on constituents affected, after seeing no possibility of winning more votes by helping, and still the Darling-created nightmare go on. Take a look at http://www.theukgovernment.com fo the miserable details.
This is not a simple 'lets blame the Government', this was caused wholly by the actions of Alistair Darling and the citizens of the UK are letting him get away with it. Appauling.
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This is the first aniversary of Alistair Darling's destruction of my family and many many others.
The past year has seen us being lied to by the UK Government, ignored by the UK Government and deserted by the UK Government.
When Alistair Darling originally triggered the calamity we contacted the Government with the following points;
1. We had been forced to use an offshore bank as, without a UK address, we couldn't open or maintain a UK bank account. To do so would have meant having to travel back to the UK and present ourselves physically to the branch (how you do that with Cahoot etc still puzzles me). It was 2007 'Know your Customer' legislation that created this disaster-waiting-to-happen scenario; again, denied by this dreadful Government.
2. The UK FSA had persuaded the IoM bank to put £550Million in the London bank Alistair Darling destroyed in the first place!
3. To rectify the problem he had caused, Darling simply had to instruct the liquidator or return the £550Million using powers he had bestowed on himself when he forced the London Kaupthing HF into liquidation.
Initially all three points were ignored. One MP - Mary Creagh - quickly recognised the problem and had the guts to stand in Parliament and put the points to the Government. Ian Pearson responded by denying any problem and stated that there was no reason British citizens had to use offshore banks, even without a UK address.
The other two points were ignored.
As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, every single day has been a soul destroying nightmare. The Government, using Sarah McCarthy-Fry now as its lackey, has very quietly now started to admit the difficulty in maintaining a UK bank account without a Uk address. They quietly instructed the UK banking authority to put a notice about this on its website - while STILL ignoring the catastrophy they had triggered.
For many, myself included, it is too late for any 'rescue'. The life changing (indeed, life destroying) damage has been done. However, I personally will not cease my fight to get what Alistair Darling did known by as many as possible. I still write 10-20 emails & letters day, using what pennies I can now scrape together, to MP's (who themselves have generally shown what incompetent fools they are) and to members of the 2008 G20 summit pointing out the deception that this Government has woven.
On the 8th of October 2008, this UK Government proved they incompetency in running a decent honest Country and since then they have shown just how they have no concern about how their actions affect honest hard working people. They have called me a Tax Dodger and questioned my honesty in pointing out what happened and it is simply a disgrace.
A year of shame for UK politics as a whole. The full details can be seen on www.theukgovernment.com (which is now, according to Google Analytics, attacting upto 6000 hits a month worldwide - mostly due to 'viral' emails).
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