By Chris Hughes
Published: August 16 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 16 2007 03:00
The Financial Services Authority likes to be seen as a light-touch regulator, but its record on bringing miscreants to book leaves it vulnerable to being labelled a soft-touch one as well.
The City regulator regularly fines companies and individuals for misdemeanours and sloppy standards, such as misleading financial adverts.
Some fines are large. In 2005, it fined Citi £14m for the “Dr Evil” trade, which caused turmoil in the European bond market to the bank’s gain. It fined Shell £17m in 2004 for mis-stating its oil reserves.
But the FSA has made it a public priority to clamp down on abuse by City professionals. Its record here is patchy.
Last year it fined Philippe Jabre, a trader at hedge fund GLG Partners, for misuse of inside information, and David Maslen, a trader at Deutsche Bank, for mishandling a share issue.
Contrast this with US regulators’ clampdown on Wall Street’s abuses, such as biased investment research, during the technology boom.
Investment banks agreed to fines of $1.4bn (£700m) in a settlement led by Eliot Spitzer, then New York attorney-general, and rubber-stamped by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC can also point to many insider trading cases, with seven announced this year.
For its part, the FSA has often said that it should be judged for preventing abuses rather than punishing them.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
