Financial Times: Retailer was unusual target for City watchdog
By Alistair Gray
Published: May 13 2008 03:00 | Last updated: May 13 2008 03:00
By the FSA’s standards, yesterday’s decision was significant more for the nature of its target rather than the scale of penalty – even if Land of Leather was awarded a 30 per cent discount for settling early, writes Alistair Gray.
It is dwarfed by the £17m fine against Royal Dutch Shell in 2004, the watchdog’s largest to date, for market abuse.
Neither does it come close to the £13.9m Citigroup had to pay in 2005 for destabilising the eurozone market.
Still, its six previous fines relating to payment protection insurance have been rather more modest. The largest, against HFC Bank, amounted to £1.1m.
Other than the £270,000 levied against Redcats, the home shopping company, the PPI fines thus far have been confined to financial service companies, although car dealerships Eastern Western Motor Group and Cathedral Motor Company have been censured publicly.
The watchdog levied less in fines in 2007 than in the previous six years. Fines totalled £5.3m compared with £13.3m in 2006, although at 23, the number was near the 28 of 2006.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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.
