[다큐] Untouchable 대마불사 HSBC: 97년 홍콩의 중국 반환 이후 HSBC의 친중+검은돈 프로젝트를 지시했던 HSBC 회장이자 영국 성공회 목사인 Stephen Green은 2010년 보수당 데이비드 캐머런 정부의 무역투자 장관이 된다; 캐머런 정권의 재무장관을 역임했던 조지 오스번의 압력으로 2012년 HSBC에 대한 미국의 조사는 무산되고 HSBC는 가벼운 벌금만 내고 끝났다; 3년 뒤 스위스에서도 HSBC는 기소되지 않고 벌금만 내고 끝났다; HSBC 사장을 지낸 Stuart Gulliver가 파나마 페이퍼스에 예치한 돈은 무려 750million dollars; Gulliver은 파나마 페이퍼스에 관한 어떤 윤리적 죄책감도 느끼지 않는다고 말한다; 현 HSBC 회장인 Mark Edward Tucker은 전임 회장 Stephen Keith Green처럼 맥킨지와 관련이 깊다; 옥스퍼드 대학교 & 맥킨지 & HSBC 커넥션; 데이비드 캐머런 & 조지 오스번 & 로스차일드 커넥션
HSBC: The Money Laundering Scandal - If HSBC were a country, it would be the fifth world economic power. Founded during the golden age of the Opium trade to enable the British Empire to access the Chinese market, it has created a unique network to move dirty money around the world.
HSBC: The Money Laundering Scandal (2017)
Director: Jerome Fritel, Marc Roche
Writers: Jérôme Fritel, Marc Roche
Stars: Douglas Arner, Jack Blum, Lanny Breuer
Genre: Documentary
Country: France
Language: English
Also Known As: Banksters
Synopsis:
From the director of ‘Goldman Sachs: The Bank that Rules the World’ comes a major new investigation into corruption at one of the world’s top financial institutions – HSBC.
If HSBC were a country, it would be the fifth world economic power. Founded during the golden age of the Opium trade to enable the British Empire to access the Chinese market, it has created a unique network to move dirty money around the world. From tax evasion to money laundering for the mafia and manipulation of currency, “this bank had done everything bad that a bank can possibly do.”
In 2012, HSBC nearly lost its license to operate in the US for laundering the money of the Mexican and Columbian drug cartels. Criminal charges were filed and HSBC’s executives hauled before a Senate committee. But George Osborne, UK’s then Chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote to his counterpart in America and to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve to plead for leniency. He claimed that if HSBC received a harsh punishment, it would have serious repercussions on the world’s financial and economic stability. The letter worked and HSBC was fined 2 billion euros. The equivalent of one month’s profits.
As the center of international finance moves to Asia, HSBC is in prime position. It is the most Chinese of Western banks and the most European of Chinese banks. Protected by London, blessed by Beijing, who would dare attack it?
Reviews:
"Quite French in some parts, but universal in it's worry. A history of one of the main corrupt entities in a global corrupt financial system between the British and the Chinese. Do you want to get upset about any fees and penalties your bank issues you for being a week late in payment (when you explicitly have the funds in another account of yours to counter that fee?) Watch this!! It's the basic story began years and years ago to take power and financial freedom from the little guy, and protect the big guy. Above the law, no repercussions Governments protecting banks. Why is the judicial system protecting this ?"
- written by "heath-67" on IMDb.com
Also Known As (AKA):
(original title) Les gangsters de la finance
France Les gangsters de la finance
Germany Die Skandalbank
https://fr.linkedin.com/in/j%C3%A9r%C3%B4me-fritel-a0b92672
Journaliste Réalisateur de documentaires TV - TV Documentaries Film Director
Freelance - Indépendant
"Goldman Sachs: la banque qui dirige le Monde" (Arte TV/2012).
"Goldman Sachs: The Bank who rules the world" (Arte TV/2012):
Récompenses/Awards: Prix Spécial du Jury au FIGRA (2013), Lauriers de l'Audiovisuel (2012), Prix Tournesol (2014).
"L'Embuscade" (France Télévision/2014)
"The Embush" (France Télévision/2014)
"Mittal: la Face cachée de l'Empire" (Arte TV/2014)
"Mittal: The Hidden face of the Empire" (Arte TV/2014)
"D.A.E.C.H: Naissance d'un état terroriste" (Arte TV/2015)
"I.S.I.S: Rise of a Terrorist State" (Arte TV/2015)
Récompense/Award: Lauriers de l'Audiovisuel (2015)
"Les Guerres cachées contre DAECH"(Arte TV/2016)
"The Hidden Wars against ISIS" (Arte TV/2016)
"Jeux vidéo: les nouveaux Maîtres du monde" (Arte TV/2016)
"Video Games: The new Masters of the World" (Arte TV/2016)
"HSBC: les Gangsters de la finance" (Arte TV/2017)
"HSBC: Banksters" (Arte TV/2017)
Récompense/Award: Prix Scam de l'investigation/Figra 2017
"France-Iran: liaisons dangereuses" (France 5, 2019)
"France-Iran: the Dangerous Game" (France 5, 2019)
"Main Basse sur l'eau" (Arte TV, 2019)
"Lords of Water" (Arte TV, 2019)
Récompense/Award: Prix du Jury, Festival du Film vert (Suisse), 2020.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Green,_Baron_Green_of_Hurstpierpoint
Stephen Keith Green, Baron Green of Hurstpierpoint (born 7 November 1948), is a British politician, former Conservative[1] Minister of State for Trade and Investment, former group chairman of HSBC Holdings plc, and Anglican priest.
Early life and education
Stephen Green was born on 7 November 1948 to Dudley Keith Green and Dorothy Rosamund Mary Green (née Wickham).[2] After a private education at Lancing College, near his family home in Brighton, he attended Exeter College, Oxford, obtaining a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) in 1966. Green's parents were active churchgoers and influenced his religious activities both as a young man and later in life; after graduating he spent a year volunteering in the East End of London at a hostel for recovering alcoholics, a move also reputedly influenced by a visit from a Church of England vicar.[3][4] It was during his time at the hostel that he met Janian Joy, a fellow volunteer, whom he married in 1971.[2] In 1975 (during a Harkness Fellowship, on secondment from the Overseas Development Administration) Green also obtained a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[5]
Career
In 1971, Green began his professional life as a civil servant in the British government's Ministry of Overseas Development (now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), where he spent the next six years.[5] In 1977, he joined McKinsey & Co Inc. management consultants,[4] with whom he undertook assignments in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
As a result of being headhunted, Green joined the then Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1982, initially on a two-year contract,[2] with responsibility for corporate planning activities. In 1985 he was put in charge of the development of the bank's global treasury operations, and in 1992 became group treasurer of HSBC Holdings plc with responsibility for the HSBC Group's treasury and capital markets businesses globally.
In March 1998 Green was appointed to the board of HSBC Holdings plc as executive director of Investment Banking and Markets, responsible for the investment banking, private banking and asset management activities of the Group. He assumed additional responsibility for the group's corporate banking business in May 2002. As executive director, Green cancelled all executive bonuses in both 2001 and 2002, telling The Wall Street Journal in March 2003: "We took the view that a business that had not performed for the shareholder couldn't expect to receive bonuses".[2] The decision saw some key staff leave in protest but it also won the company some praise; Institutional Investor magazine quoted HSBC's then chairman, Sir John Bond, as saying: "We had corporate clients come up to us and say, 'Thank God you've taken a stand'".[6]
In the year before becoming chief executive, Green earned below £1m; HSBC's annual report for the period showed that none of the company's five top-earning employees was a board member. Green told The Guardian in October 2003: "Plenty of people in this organisation earn more than me. I genuinely don't care. I can hardly be described as lowly paid. Since when was money the be-all and end-all?" Asked by the newspaper's reporter Jill Treanor how he reconciled the organization's high salaries and bonuses with his religious faith, he replied: "Do I personally feel some kind of incompatibility between what I believe and being in financial services markets? I can only say no".[7]
His appointment as group chief executive took effect on 1 June 2003. Shortly afterwards, in October 2003, HSBC announced that it would offshore the work done by its UK finance processing centres in Birmingham, Sheffield, Brentwood and Swansea to India, Malaysia and China within two years. The move, which represented the largest such offshoring in the financial services sector at that time and would lead to the loss of 4,000 British jobs, led the UK trade union UNIFI to warn Green that the "gloves were off". He defended the decision, telling The Guardian's Jill Treanor:
Green also oversaw HSBC's acquisition of Household International, a US subprime lender,[4] as well as its integration into the parent company. He later came to regret the deal,[8] which was the largest acquisition in a series conducted by HSBC in the five years leading up to his appointment as its chief executive.[2]
In January 2005, Green became chairman of HSBC Bank plc, the group's UK clearing bank subsidiary, and group executive chairman in June 2006. In its July 2005 issue, Bloomberg Markets magazine reported that HSBC was allowing money laundering by drug dealers and state sponsors of terrorism; the magazine alleged that this had included a transfer of $100,000 in April 2000 to the Taliban in Afghanistan which had subsequently resulted in a fine levied by the US Treasury Department. Green denied the allegations, calling them "a singular and wholly irresponsible attack on the bank's international compliance procedures".[9] Subsequent investigations however, confirmed that money laundering had taken place at HSBC[10] for several years throughout Green's tenure as chief executive and chairman,[11][12] chiefly for the Sinaloa Cartel.[13] Green earned well over £25 million per year at the time.[citation needed] Green's successor as the top of HSBC, Stuart Gulliver, said "between 2004 and 2010, our anti-money laundering controls should have been stronger and more effective and we failed to spot and deal with unacceptable behaviour."[14]
Minister of State for Trade and Investment
In September 2010, it was announced that Green would join the UK's Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government in early 2011 as an unpaid Minister of State for Trade and Investment.[15][16] In order to take up his ministerial position, he stepped down as group chairman of HSBC on 3 December 2010 and was replaced by Douglas Flint.[17] To enable him to be accountable to Parliament, he was created a life peer on 16 November 2010 as Baron Green of Hurstpierpoint, of Hurstpierpoint in the County of West Sussex,[18] and was introduced in the House of Lords on 22 November. He was Minister of State for Trade and Investment in both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 11 January 2011 until 11 December 2013.
Aftermath
After Green's retirement from HSBC, the questions that had begun to be asked about the bank's behaviour under his leadership continued. On 23 July 2012, the US Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 335-page report setting out HSBC's compliance failures over a ten-year period. In the report, Senate investigators said the bank had bypassed the USA's sanctions against Iran, enabled money laundering by Mexican drug lords (chiefly for the Sinaloa Cartel),[13] and had conducted business with companies with links to terrorism.[9] The report quoted emails copied to Green detailing such dubious transactions and alleged that the bank had continued to allow them to continue even after he and his colleagues had promised to act.[3][19] Green told Sky News that he had "no case to answer" over the money laundering scandal, saying: "As and when issues were drawn to our attention, as we were seeking to grapple with the issues, we took action. I think we must acknowledge there were some failures of implementation. HSBC has expressed its regret for that. I share that regret."[20]
Defending Green, Lord Oakeshott, a former Treasury spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: "Stephen Green was a thoughtful banker in holy orders. But if even he couldn't stop these scandals, banks like HSBC and Barclays aren't just too big to fail, they are clearly too big to control".[19]
The Senate report prompted shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, Chris Leslie, to write to Green asking him to "place on the record – at the earliest opportunity – an assurance that you took every appropriate step if and when you became aware of the issues raised by this report" and asking a number of specific questions.[21] Leslie was unconvinced by Green's reply, in which he had written: "With regards [sic] to the bank's efforts to address its AML (anti-money laundering) and OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) compliance issues, HSBC has expressed its regret that there were failures of implementation in these areas, and I share that regret". Leslie maintained that Green's letter failed to:
Shortly afterwards, Green failed to attend the House of Lords to answer a Labour question about the affair. The Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Strathclyde, defended Green, saying that his earlier employment with HSBC did not affect his ability to carry out his duties.[20]
In February 2015, there was further criticism of Green and his leadership of HSBC after BBC Television broadcast a Panorama programme entitled The Bank of Tax Cheats exposing the complicity of HSBC's Swiss private bank, HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA, in helping more than 100,000 clients from over 200 countries evade tax worth hundreds of millions of pounds.[22] At the time of the alleged offences Green was the Swiss bank's chairman.[23] BBC presenter Richard Bilton confronted Green, who refused to discuss the issue saying only: "As a matter of principle I will not comment on the business of HSBC past or present". Chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge MP, said: "Either he didn't know and he was asleep at the wheel, or he did know and he was therefore involved in dodgy tax practices. Either way he was the man in charge and I think he has got really important questions to answer".[22] A few days after the Panorama broadcast, Green resigned as chairman of the advisory council for banking industry body, The City UK,[24] saying that he did not want to damage the effectiveness of the organisation in promoting good governance and doing the right thing.
Other
Some of his prior directorships included the Bank of Bermuda Limited, HSBC Mexico, SA and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. He was also chairman of HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA and HSBC North America Holdings Inc., deputy chairman of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG and was a board member of HSBC France. In 2005 he was appointed a trustee of the British Museum, a position from which he resigned before his appointment as Minister of State.[25] In 2014 he was appointed a trustee of the Natural History Museum by the Prime Minister David Cameron for a period of four years, and was elected chair by the board of trustees from 1 April 2014.[26]
Awards
Green was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 where he remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.[27]
Personal life
Green is an ordained priest in the Church of England,[28] having studied theology at Manchester University's Northern Ordination course while in Hong Kong,[29] and he is the author of the book Serving God? Serving Mammon?[30] He has since described the book as "out of print and out of date".[7] During his time as a senior banking executive, he was known to compose his sermons while travelling around the world on business.[2]
Green was awarded an honorary doctor's degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2010.[31]
He is married to Janian and has two daughters, Suzannah and Ruth. He has a sister, Elizabeth, who lives in the US and a brother, George Francis Green, who is professor of Labour Economics and Skills Development at the Institute of Education, University of London.
Publications
- Green, Stephen (7 May 1996). Serving God? Serving Mammon?. Marshall Pickering. ISBN 978-0551029828.
- Green, Stephen (3 June 2010). Good Value: Choosing a Better Life in Business. Penguin. ISBN 978-0141042428.
- Green, Stephen (December 2014). Reluctant Meister: How Germany's Past is Shaping its European Future. Haus Publishing. ISBN 9781908323682.
- Green, Stephen (October 2015). The European Identity: Historical and Cultural Realities We Cannot Deny. Haus Publishing. ISBN 9781910376171.
- Green, Stephen (September 2017). Dear Germany: Liebeserklärung an ein Land mit Vergangenheit. Theiss. ISBN 9783806236330.
- Green, Stephen (May 2017). Brexit and the British: Who Are We Now?. Haus Publishing. ISBN 9781910376713.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne CH (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 2001 to 2017. He was editor of the Evening Standard from 2017 to 2020.
The son of the Osborne & Little co-founder and baronet Peter Osborne, Osborne was born in Paddington and educated at Norland Place School, Colet Court and St Paul's School before studying at Magdalen College, Oxford. After working briefly as a freelancer for The Daily Telegraph, he joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994 and became head of its political section. He went on to be a special adviser to Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg and work for John Major at 10 Downing Street, including on Major's unsuccessful 1997 general election campaign. In Opposition, he worked as a speechwriter and political secretary to Major's successor as party leader, William Hague.
Osborne was elected as MP for Tatton in 2001, becoming the youngest Conservative member of the House of Commons. He was appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Conservative leader Michael Howard in 2004. The following year he ran David Cameron's successful party leadership campaign, and was subsequently appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. After the 2010 general election, Osborne was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Cameron–Clegg coalition. He succeeded Alistair Darling, inheriting a large deficit in government finances due to the effects of the late-2000s financial crisis. As Chancellor, Osborne's tenure pursued austerity policies aimed at reducing the budget deficit and launched the Northern Powerhouse initiative. After the Conservatives won an overall majority in the 2015 general election, Cameron reappointed him Chancellor in his second government and gave him the additional title of First Secretary of State. He was widely viewed as a potential successor to David Cameron as Leader of the Conservative Party; one Conservative MP, Nadhim Zahawi, suggested that the closeness of his relationship with Cameron meant that the two effectively shared power during the duration of the Cameron governments.[1] Following the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union and Cameron's consequent resignation, he was dismissed by Cameron's successor, Theresa May.
Osborne served on the backbenches for a year before leaving public office at the 2017 general election. He was editor of the Evening Standard from 2017 to 2020. He has been chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) since 2016 and of the British Museum since 2021.
Early life and education
Osborne was born in Paddington, London,[2] as Gideon Oliver Osborne.[3] His father is Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet, co-founder of the firm of fabric and wallpaper designers Osborne & Little.[4] His mother is Felicity Alexandra Loxton-Peacock, the daughter of Hungarian-born Jewish[5][6] artist Clarisse Loxton-Peacock (née Fehér).[3][7] He is the eldest of four boys.[4] He decided when he was 13 to be known by the additional first name of 'George'. In an interview in July 2005, he said: "It was my small act of rebellion. I never liked it [the name 'Gideon']. When I finally told my mother she said, 'Nor do I'. So I decided to be George after my grandfather [Sir George Francis Osborne, 16th Baronet], who was a war hero. Life was easier as a George; it was a straightforward name."[3][8][9] Osborne is to inherit his father's baronetcy; he would thus become Sir George Osborne, 18th Baronet.[4]
Osborne was educated at private schools: Norland Place School, Colet Court and St Paul's School.[10] In 1990 he was awarded a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford,[3] where in 1993 he received a 2:1 bachelor's degree in Modern History.[4][11] Whilst there, he was a member of the Bullingdon Club.[12] He also attended Davidson College in North Carolina for a semester, as a Dean Rusk Scholar.[13]
In 1993, Osborne intended to pursue a career in journalism. He was shortlisted for, but failed to gain a place on, The Times' trainee scheme; he also applied to The Economist, where he was interviewed and rejected by Gideon Rachman.[14] In the end, he had to settle for freelance work on the 'Peterborough' diary column in The Daily Telegraph.[15] One of his Oxford friends, journalist George Bridges, alerted Osborne some time later to a research vacancy at Conservative Central Office.[15]
Early political career
Osborne joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994, and became head of its Political Section. One of his first roles was to go to Blackpool and observe the October 1994 Labour Party Conference.[16]
Between 1995 and 1997 he worked as a special adviser to Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg (during the BSE crisis), and in the Political Office at 10 Downing Street. Osborne worked on Prime Minister John Major's campaign team in 1997, in the run-up to the Tories' heavy election defeat that year.[17] After the election, he again considered journalism, approaching The Times to be a leader writer, though nothing came of it.
Between 1997 and 2001 he worked for William Hague, Major's successor as Conservative Party leader, as a speechwriter and political secretary. He helped to prepare Hague for the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions,[17] often playing the role of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Under the subsequent leaderships of Michael Howard and David Cameron, he remained on the Prime Minister's Questions team.
Member of Parliament
Osborne was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton, Cheshire, at the June 2001 election. He succeeded Independent MP Martin Bell, who had defeated the controversial former Conservative minister Neil Hamilton in 1997 but had kept his promise not to stand there at the following election. Osborne won with a majority of 8,611 over the Labour candidate, becoming (at that time) the youngest Conservative MP in the House of Commons. At the 2005 election he was re-elected with an increased majority of 11,731 (securing 51.8% of the vote), and in 2010 increased his majority still further to 14,487.
Shadow Chancellor (2005–2010)
He was appointed in September 2004 by then Conservative leader Michael Howard to the Shadow Cabinet, as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Following the 2005 general election, Howard promoted him to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer at the young age of 33. Howard had initially offered the post to William Hague, who turned it down. Press reports suggest that the second choice for the post was David Cameron, who also rejected the job, preferring to take on a major public service portfolio (he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Education). Thus, Howard seems to have turned to Osborne as his third choice for the role.[18] His promotion prompted speculation he would run for the leadership of the Conservative Party when Howard stepped down, but he ruled himself out within a week.[19] Osborne served as campaign manager for David Cameron's leadership campaign, and kept the Shadow Chancellor's post when Cameron became leader later that year.
When David Cameron was asked in 2009 whether or not he would be willing to sack a close colleague such as Osborne, he stated, "With George, the answer is yes. He stayed in my shadow cabinet not because he is a friend, not because we are godfathers to each other's children but because he is the right person to do the job. I know and he knows that if that was not the case he would not be there."[20]
At this time Osborne expressed an interest in the ideas of "tax simplification" (including the idea of flat tax). He set up a "Tax Reform Commission" in October 2005 to investigate ideas for how to create a "flatter, simpler" tax system. The system then proposed would reduce the income tax rate to a flat 22%, and increase the personal allowance from £4,435 to between £10,000 and £15,500. However, the idea of a flat tax was not included in the 2010 Conservative Party manifesto.[21]
Comments on Gordon Brown
During Osborne's response to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's Pre-Budget Report on 5 December 2005, he accused Brown of being "a Chancellor past his sell-by-date, a Chancellor holding Britain back". In an interview the same week, he also referred to Brown as "brutal" and "unpleasant".[22] Osborne was rebuked in October 2006 by Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, when he attacked the Chancellor at Oral Questions by citing a comment attributed to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton, describing the Chancellor as likely to make an "effing awful" Prime Minister.[23] It was widely suggested that Osborne was leading an assault on Brown that would allow the Conservatives to discredit him without damaging David Cameron's public image.[23][24][25] That month, Osborne faced criticism from some quarters for appearing to suggest that Brown was "faintly autistic". After Osborne spoke in an interview about his own ability to recall odd facts, a host suggested to him that he may have been "faintly autistic"; he responded by saying that "We're not getting onto Gordon Brown yet".[26]
Pledge to match Labour spending
In September 2007, ahead of the publication of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, Osborne pledged that the Conservative Party would match Labour's public spending plans for the next three years.[27] He promised increases in public spending of 2% a year,[27] and said Labour charges that the Conservatives would cut public spending were "a pack of lies".[28] He also ruled out any "upfront, unfunded tax cuts".[28]
Deripaska claim
Osborne's school and university contemporary, financier Nathaniel Rothschild, said in October 2008 that Osborne had tried to solicit a £50,000 donation from the Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, which would have been a violation of the law against political donations by foreign citizens.[29][30] Rothschild had hosted Deripaska, Osborne, Peter Mandelson and others at a party in his villa in Corfu. The alleged solicitation of a donation occurred on Deripaska's yacht during the party.[31][32]
The Electoral Commission received a formal complaint initiated in a letter by the Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesperson, Chris Huhne, urging them to investigate the allegations against Osborne. The Commission rejected the claims and said it saw "no information" suggesting an offence.[33][34] The accusation was referred to by the press as 'Yachtgate'.[32] Osborne denied claims he had attempted to solicit a donation from Deripaska and said that he had "made a mistake" by meeting with him.[35]
"Run on the pound"
On 14 November 2008, in an intervention described by the BBC's Nick Robinson as "pretty extraordinary",[36] Osborne publicly warned that the more the government borrows, the less attractive sterling becomes to hold. He said: "We are in danger, if the government is not careful, of having a proper sterling collapse, a run on the pound." Labelling Gordon Brown's tactic a "scorched-earth policy" that a future Conservative government would have to clear up, Osborne continued: "His view is he probably won't win the next election. The Tories can clear this mess up after I've gone."[36]
Expenses
In 2009 and 2012 Osborne was criticised for his expense claims, in particular for the claims for mortgage interest payments on his Cheshire properties.[37][38][39] Osborne had funded the purchase of a country farmhouse and adjoining paddock in Cheshire before he became an MP in 2001 by way of a £455,000 extension of the mortgage on his London home. In 2003 he substituted a new £450,000 mortgage on the Cheshire property, which he then designated as his second home, or "flipped". As a result, he was able to claim up to £100,000 in mortgage interest on the house and paddock between 2003 and 2010, when the regulations changed.[38][39][40] In 2012 it was revealed that the paddock had been legally separate from the farmhouse.[39][41]
The Liberal Democrats said he had a "moral obligation" to pay an estimated £55,000 in capital gains tax to the public purse which he had saved through the designation or "flipping" of his London property as his main home.[42] He had previously paid back £1,193 spent on chauffeur fares and overpayments on his mortgage[43] after a complaint from a Labour activist, and it also emerged that he had claimed £47 for two copies of a DVD of his own speech on "value for taxpayers' money".[44] The report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found that although Osborne had breached the rules, the offence was "unintended and relatively minor". Osborne said he had received "flawed" advice and not benefited personally.[45]
2010 general election campaign
During the 2010 general election campaign Osborne was considered to have been sidelined, owing to his perceived unpopularity and the perception by both Liberal Democrat and Labour strategists that he was a "weak link".[46]
Chancellor of the Exchequer (2010–2016)
Osborne was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer on 11 May 2010, and was sworn in as a Privy Counsellor two days later.[47] On 4 October 2010, in a speech at the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Osborne announced a cap on the overall amount of benefits a family can receive from the state, estimated to be around £500 a week from 2013. He also announced that he would end the universal entitlement to child benefit, and that from 2013 the entitlement would be removed from people paying the 40% and 50% income tax rates.[48]
In February 2011 Osborne announced Project Merlin, whereby banks aimed to lend about £190 billion to businesses in 2011, curb bonuses and reveal some salary details of their top earners; meanwhile, the bank levy would increase by £800 million. Osborne's 2011 Autumn Statement was delivered to Parliament on 29 November 2011. It included a programme of supply-side economic reforms such as investments in infrastructure intended to support economic growth.[49]
In 2012, Osborne cut the 50% income tax rate on top earners and figures from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs showed that the amount of additional-rate tax paid had increased under the new rate from £38 billion in 2012/13 to £46 billion in 2013/14, which Osborne said was caused by the new rate being more "competitive", however HMRC predictions in March 2012 predicted that around £6.25 billion in tax revenue would be delayed from 2012/13 to 2013/14 due to the expected lower tax rate, possibly explaining much of the increased revenue, and that the change would cost around £2.4 billion in 2012, however this cost would decrease and was expected to be nullified by 2016/17. [50][51] In October 2012, Osborne proposed a new policy to boost the hiring of staff, under which companies would be able to give new appointees shares worth between £2,000 and £50,000, but the appointees would lose the right to claim unfair dismissal and time off for training.[52][53]
In February 2013, the UK lost its AAA credit rating—which Osborne had indicated to be a priority when coming to power—for the first time since 1978.[54] His March 2013 budget was made when the Office for Budget Responsibility had halved its forecast for that year's economic growth from 1.2% to 0.6%.[55]
Osborne announced on 16 May that he would deliver a second Budget on 8 July, and promised action on tax avoidance by the rich by bringing in a "Google tax" designed to discourage large companies diverting profits out of the UK to avoid tax.[56] The second Budget also increased funding for the National Health Service, more apprenticeships, efforts to increase productivity and cuts to the welfare budget.[57] The July budget postponed the predicted arrival of a UK surplus from 2019 to 2020, and included an extra £18 billion more borrowing for 2016–20 than planned for the same period in March.[58]
In Osborne's 2016 budget he introduced a sugar tax and raised the tax-free allowance for income tax to £11,500, as well as lifting the 40% income tax threshold to £45,000.[59] According to The Guardian, Osborne was "the driving force" behind the BBC licence fee agreement which saw the BBC responsible for funding the £700 million welfare cost of free TV licences for the over-75s, meaning that it lost almost 20% of its income.[60] The Guardian also noted Osborne's four meetings with News Corp representatives and two meetings with Rupert Murdoch before the deal was announced.[61] Following the UK's vote to leave the European Union in June 2016, Osborne pledged to further lower corporation tax to "encourage businesses to continue investing in the UK". Osborne had already cut the corporation tax rate from 28% to 20%, with plans to lower it to 17% by 2020.[62][63]
Political views
The Financial Times describes Osborne as "metropolitan and socially liberal. He is hawkish on foreign policy with links to Washington neo-conservatives and ideologically committed to cutting the state. A pragmatic Eurosceptic".[64] There is evidence of this commitment to cutting the state in his party's manifesto, with Osborne and the Conservatives seeking to cut the deficit "faster and deeper" than any other main party as well as committing to various tax cuts such as inheritance tax and national insurance. According to an IFS report before the 2010 general election,[65] the Conservatives needed to find more money from cuts beyond what they had outlined than any other major party, although the report was also critical of Labour and the Liberal Democrats. He has stated that the British economy must diversify away from London following the 2008 banking crisis, most notably in the form of the Northern Powerhouse policy proposals which aim to improve transport links and boost science and technology investment in the cities of the North in order to increase economic output.[66]
After previously drawing parallels between Ed Miliband's economic views and those of Karl Marx in Das Kapital, in a 2017 interview with former Treasury colleague Lord O'Neill, Osborne said Marx's thesis in Das Kapital that capitalists would take an increasing share of wealth from the proceeds of economic production at the expense of workers could be argued as an accurate description of something that appeared to be occurring under the process of globalization, arguing that there was a need to "democratise capital" and ensure "that people have more capital in capitalism", such as larger pensions and more opportunities for savings and home and share ownership.[67]
Brexit
At the time of the 2016 referendum Osborne was prominently in favour of the UK remaining in the EU.[68][69]
Political relationships
Whilst David Cameron was prime minister, Osborne was widely viewed as a potential future leader of the Conservatives were Cameron to stand down and trigger a leadership contest, despite being seen as a relatively unpopular figure with the general public.[1][70][71] Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi suggested that the closeness of his relationship with Cameron meant the two effectively shared power in the 2010–16 government, whilst commentators pointed to Osborne's hand in Cabinet reshuffles.[1] He worked hard on rebuilding his image after the much-criticised 2012 budget.[1]
Michael Deacon of The Daily Telegraph has described Osborne as "the prince of the parliamentary putdown" after, during one House of Commons debate, he managed to taunt both Ed Balls and Norman Baker in one sentence.[72] Osborne denied rumours that he had referred to his colleague Iain Duncan Smith as "not clever enough", which were published in Matthew d'Ancona's book In It Together.[73]
On 28 June 2016, Osborne ruled out standing as a candidate in that year's party leadership election, stating he was "not the person to provide the unity" his party needed.[74]
Backbencher (2016–2017)
Osborne was sacked by Theresa May on 13 July 2016, following her appointment as Prime Minister. He returned to the backbenches and Philip Hammond replaced him as Chancellor.[75] It was announced on 4 August 2016 that Osborne was to be made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the Resignation Honours list following David Cameron's resignation.[76] Unlike Cameron, Osborne intended to remain an MP and stand for Parliament again in 2020, although proposed boundary changes could have led to the abolition of his Tatton constituency.[77]
In September 2016, he launched the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a body bringing together business leaders and politicians to promote regional devolution.[78][79]
By October 2016, he was writing a book called Age of Unreason; it is a diatribe against "populist nationalism".[80] Osborne's lucrative speaking engagements for a range of financial institutions since his dismissal as Chancellor helped make him the highest earning MP in 2016.[81] In February 2017 he started a new role as a part-time advisor to BlackRock, the world's largest fund manager, for a salary of £650,000 for a one-day a week.[82] The job was approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which stated that during Osborne's time as Chancellor "there were no specific policy decisions ... that would have affected BlackRock", and the Permanent Secretary at the Treasury had "no concerns" about Osborne taking up the role.[83]
In 2017, Osborne became the first Kissinger Fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership. While the institute is based in John McCain's home state of Arizona, Osborne will remain in the UK.[84]
Osborne announced he would be standing down as MP for Tatton in April 2017, a day after the 2017 general election was declared. He did not rule out returning to the Commons at some point. "It's still too early to be writing my memoirs", he wrote in a letter to his constituency party, adding he did not "want to spend the rest of my life just being an ex-chancellor. I want new challenges".[85]
Career after Parliament
Evening Standard editor
Then still an MP, Osborne was announced on 17 March 2017 as the next editor of the Evening Standard, a position which he assumed on 2 May.[86][87] Critics of his appointment questioned his lack of journalistic experience and his intention to remain MP for Tatton during his tenure with the newspaper, which other MPs said would constitute a conflict of interest and devalued the role of an MP.[88] He was also accused of breaking the post-ministerial employment rules of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments by accepting the editorship without the committee's approval.[89]
Private Eye subsequently documented in detail the relationship between Osborne and Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev, who appointed Osborne as editor. During Osborne's time as Chancellor of the Exchequer he regularly pledged Treasury money to Standard charitable campaigns, such as his offer in 2015 to match readers' donations by up to £1.5 million to the Standard's Great Ormond Street Hospital appeal. In September 2015, the newspaper ranked Osborne in joint-first place on its annual 'Progress 1000' list of the most influential people in London. It was also highlighted that, as Chancellor, Osborne failed to tackle the advantageous tax status for so-called non-doms, which Lebedev was understood to benefit from, while Lebedev's paper strongly supported the Conservative Party in the 2015 general election and the Conservatives' candidate Zac Goldsmith in the 2016 London mayoral election.[90]
After stepping down from politics, Osborne took on several engagements in addition to his work as editor. Among them was being named a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a dean's fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in September 2017. He specialised in research on international politics and the global economy.[91] He continued to advise the asset manager BlackRock and also began advising his brother's firm 9Yards Capital.[92] He joined 9Yards, a growth stage venture capital firm focused on financial technology and IT logistics investments, in 2018 as a partner and chairman.[93]
In mid-2018, the Standard reported a loss of £10 million for the last year to the end of September. That year the paper dropped 'London' from its title to reflect greater national and international ambitions as part of a relaunch.[94] For 2018, the Standard reported a £11.5 million loss amid speculation of "ad struggles".[95]
In February 2020, questions were raised about Osborne's future at the Standard.[96] On 12 June it was announced that he would step down as editor to move to the role of editor-in-chief.[97] He was succeeded as editor by the former deputy editor of British Vogue and sister-in-law of David Cameron, Emily Sheffield, on 1 July 2020.[98]
Comment on Theresa May
In a profile of Osborne published by Esquire magazine in September 2017, it was said that he had commented to several staff at the Evening Standard that he would not be satisfied until Theresa May was "chopped up in bags in my freezer".[99] While Osborne had used macabre imagery about May in the past, he did not directly comment on the incident, although he was criticised for the alleged remark.[100] An editorial in the Standard, published nearly a week later, was interpreted as Osborne's apology to May. It said "harsh words" had been said in connection with the Prime Minister's Brexit policy, but "intemperate language, even when said in jest" was inappropriate.[101][102]
Attempts to return to politics
In 2018 Osborne was discussed as a potential candidate for Mayor of London in the election scheduled to be held in 2020.[103] He said that as well as considering a bid, he would not rule out a return to Parliament.[104] However, in an interview he said he would not stand for mayor as it would clash with his role as editor of the Evening Standard.[105]
In July 2019, the Financial Times reported that Osborne was seeking backing to replace Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).[106][107] Osborne needed to be nominated by directors on the IMF's executive board, who were elected by member countries, to enter the contest. Both European and British government sources said that Osborne, who backed Boris Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership election, would likely be the British nomination,[108] due in part to Johnson's accession to Prime Minister. Lagarde's replacement was to be selected by the executive board, where the United States, Japan and China held the largest shares of the total vote.[109] Several UK government figures, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid, endorsed Osborne for the role.[110] Boris Johnson spoke to US President Donald Trump in a phone call to rally support for Osborne.[111][112] On 6 September 2019, Osborne abandoned his IMF leadership attempt,[113] and sources later confirmed that the chief executive of the World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva, had been put forward as the European Union's nominee.[114]
Career diversification
In August 2020, Osborne's name was suggested as a possible candidate for chairman of the BBC as, according to the i newspaper, he had maintained "good relations" with Boris Johnson.[115] In October The Telegraph reported that ministers had raised the salary cap to £160,000 a year for the role, and that they might have raised it further to £280,000 in order to tempt Osborne.[116] Richard Sharp was later appointed.[117]
Osborne left his roles at the Evening Standard and BlackRock in March 2021, and in April became an investment banker at Robey Warshaw.[118]
In June 2021 it was announced that the trustees of the British Museum had unanimously elected Osborne as the museum's chairman. He joined the museum's board of trustees on 1 September 2021 and formally became chairman on 4 October.[119]
On 25 September 2022, Osborne and Ed Balls became regular commentators on The Andrew Neil Show on Channel 4.[120] Subsequently, on 14 September 2023, Osborne and Balls started hosting the economics-focused politics podcast Political Currency.[121]
In popular culture
Osborne was portrayed by Sebastian Armesto in the 2015 Channel 4 television film Coalition.
Personal life
Osborne is heir apparent to his family's Irish baronetcy, of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon in County Waterford. In 2009, he had an estimated personal fortune of around £4 million, as the beneficiary of a trust fund that owns a 15% stake in Osborne & Little, the wallpaper-and-fabrics company co-founded by his father, Sir Peter Osborne.[122]
Osborne married Frances Howell, author and elder daughter of Lord Howell of Guildford, a Conservative politician, on 4 April 1998.[7] They have two children—Luke Benedict (born 15 June 2001) and Liberty Kate (born 27 June 2003)—who were both born in Westminster.[2]
In July 2019, the couple announced that they were to divorce.[123]
In May 2018, The Daily Telegraph reported that Osborne and his siblings had discovered "with delight" that their maternal grandmother Clarisse Loxton-Peacock (a Hungarian émigrée) was Jewish, and therefore that in Jewish law they are Jewish too.[6]
In April 2021, Osborne announced his engagement to Thea Rogers after two years of dating.[124] Rogers had been his special adviser and later Chief of Staff when he was Chancellor.[125] The couple's first child, a son named Beau, was born on 15 July 2021.[126] Rogers gave birth to their second child, a son named Arthur, on 30 December 2022.[127] Before their wedding in July 2023, a poison pen email was circulated.[128] The couple were married on 8 July 2023. A protestor, initially believed to be from the environmental group Just Stop Oil, threw orange confetti over them as they left the church following the wedding ceremony. Just Stop Oil denied responsibility for the incident.[129]
Honours
- 13 May 2010: appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, giving the honorific style of "The Right Honourable" for life.
- 4 August 2016: appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in David Cameron's Resignation Honours
Awards
- 2015 British GQ Politician of the Year award[130]
See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cameron
Education
Cameron was educated at two private schools. From the age of seven, he was taught at Heatherdown School in Winkfield, Berkshire. The school counts Prince Andrew and Prince Edward among its old boys. Owing to good grades, he entered its top academic class almost two years early.[24] At the age of 13, he went on to Eton College in Berkshire, following his father and elder brother.[25] His early interest was in art. Six weeks before taking his O-Levels, he was caught smoking cannabis.[26] He admitted the offence and had not been involved in selling drugs, so he was not expelled; instead he was fined, prevented from leaving the school grounds and given a "Georgic" (a punishment that involved copying 500 lines of Latin text).[27]
Cameron passed twelve O-Levels and then three A-levels: History of art; History, in which he was taught by Michael Kidson; and Economics with Politics. He obtained three 'A' grades and a '1' grade in the Scholarship Level exam in Economics and Politics.[28] The following autumn, he passed the entrance exam for the University of Oxford, and was offered an exhibition at Brasenose College.[29]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Gulliver
Stuart Thomson Gulliver (born 9 March 1959)[2][4] is a British banker, and the former group chief executive of HSBC. He was succeeded on 21 February 2018 by John Flint.
Early life and education
He was born in Derby, England, in 1959. His father Philip was a legal executive, while his mother Jean was personal assistant to the senior engineer at a local dockyard. Gulliver went to grammar school in Plymouth, Devon.[5]
Gulliver was an avid boxer while at Worcester College, Oxford, where he received a degree in jurisprudence (law). In a 2011 interview to Financial Times, Gulliver recalls his humble upbringing and his childhood aspiration, and said: "I wanted to be a barrister, but my parents couldn’t afford it".[5]
Professional career
Early career and HSBC (1980–2010)
In 1980, an HSBC executive serving in India urged him to join HSBC's elite international officer programme,[5][6][7] as it was called at that time, which paved the way for his banking career. Gulliver worked his way up in treasury and capital markets divisions,[8] rose through the ranks in the bank's Global banking and markets division,[6] and held a number of key roles in the group's operations worldwide; including postings in London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and the United Arab Emirates.
Gulliver was appointed to run the Asian and treasury capital markets desks from Hong Kong in the mid 1990s.[8] During the 1990s, Gulliver built HSBC's investment banking business in Hong Kong and turned HSBC's Asian markets business into one of the group's major money-spinners,[9] even in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.[7] He served as the head of treasury and capital markets in Asia-Pacific from 1996 to 2012.
He was appointed a group general manager in 2000, and later he led the global markets division from 2002 to 2003. He moved back to London in early 2003 to co-head the group's global corporate, investment banking and markets division along with John Studzinski. In March 2004, he joined the group management board as a group managing director. Upon the departure of John Studzinski in 2006, he was appointed chief executive of global banking and markets and HSBC Global Asset Management in May 2006.
He was a director of HSBC North America Holdings Inc until May 2009; of HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd from February 2010 to May 2011; of HSBC Latin America Holdings (UK) Limited until December 2009.[10]
He is deputy chairman of the supervisory committee of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG (since September 2007; member since May 2006); non-executive chairman and a director of HSBC France since January 2009; and chairman of HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA since February 2010 (Director since September 2007).[11]
He was made a director of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in September 2006 and has been an executive director of HSBC Holdings plc since May 2008.[12]
Group CEO of HSBC (2010–2018)
On 7 September 2010, Stephen Green,[13][14] the then group chairman of HSBC, announced that he would step down, in order to accept the invitation of the UK Prime Minister to become Minister of State for Trade and Investment in January 2011. As a result of Stephen Green's decision to step down earlier than planned, Michael Geoghegan, the then group CEO of HSBC, announced his retirement[15][16] and Stuart Gulliver, who led HSBC's investment-banking division since 2006, was appointed as the new Group CEO of HSBC Holdings plc, effective 1 January 2011.
He was also appointed the chairman of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc.[17][18][19]
In 2011, he was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of Bloomberg Markets.
In 2014, he received a total of £7.6 million in pay and bonuses.[20]
In October 2017, it was announced that he will be succeeded in February 2018 by John Flint.[21]
Personal life
His primary residence is in Kensington in West London,[5] where he lives with his Australian-born second wife, Amanda "Mandy" Henricks.[22][5] He has three children from his first marriage.[5] He officially lives in Hong Kong.[23]
A 2017 tax tribunal case shows HMRC agreed that by 2002/2003 Gulliver had become non-domiciled by establishing a domicile of choice in Hong Kong, despite having returned to be resident in the UK again, for what was intended to be a period of two years. In 2015, HMRC opened an enquiry into his domicile status, since he had in fact remained UK resident.[24]
The Guardian newspaper reported that Gulliver was a client of the scandal-ridden Panamanian lawfirm Mossack Fonseca, investing bonus payments through them.[25]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Tucker_(business)
Mark Edward Tucker (born 29 December 1957) is an English businessman, best known for his various roles at Prudential plc, where he was the CEO until September 2009.[1] He currently serves as group chairman of HSBC Holdings plc.
Early life
Mark Tucker started adult life as a trainee professional footballer, making appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Rochdale and Barnet, although he never played a first team match.[2]
Career History
After retiring from professional football, Tucker studied Business Management at the University of Leeds. He then qualified as an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.[2]
He joined Prudential plc in 1986, initially working for Prudential Portfolio Managers.[2] He progressed through various roles in the UK, Hong Kong, and the US, where he was a senior vice president at Jackson National Life from 1992 to 1993.[2] He was appointed chief executive of Prudential Corporation Asia and an executive director of Prudential plc, but left the group in May 2004 after growing frustrated at the lack of upward opportunity at Prudential to join HBOS as finance director.[2]
Following Jonathan Bloomer's ousting as CEO of Prudential in early 2005, due to bungled attempts to merge with American General and sell off Egg, Tucker rejoined Prudential in March 2005 as CEO.[2] In March 2009 it was announced he will step down at the end of September 2009, Tucker stating he had achieved all that he wanted to achieve in the role and the decision to leave was "entirely personal".[3] He does not intend to retire, stating "There’s at least one more big job in me".[1] Tucker is a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs.[4] He served as the CEO and president of Asian focus insurer AIA Group from June 2009 to September 2017, where he successfully led the former Asian assurance arm of New York-based American International Group (AIG) for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2010. It raised approximately HK$159.08 billion (US$20.51 billion), the world's third largest IPO ever.[5]
Tucker was appointed to the board as a non-executive director and group chairman-designate of HSBC Holdings plc on 1 September 2017. He became non-executive group chairman on 1 October 2017, succeeding executive chairman Douglas Flint, who retired.[6]
In June 2019, Tucker was appointed board chairman of the private-sector membership body and industry advocacy group TheCityUK, succeeding John McFarlane.[7]
In February 2023, he was named a member of the McKinsey & Company External Advisory Group.[8]
Personal life
Tucker is married with one son and one daughter. During Tucker's time with AIA, the company became Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur's shirt main sponsor.
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