Smoking gun – the corrupt appointment of Rona Fairhead to the BBC

Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 09.50.01This blog discloses how the Tory government engineered the appointment of an HSBC banker to head the BBC in order to save David Cameron’s skin for his involvement in the cover-up. There is now an interview with me discussing this blog here (before I learned of the involvement of Jo Johnson).

In April and June last year a supporter of mine Ben Tomeo wrote to John Lewis (HSBC defrauded their customers) and the Financial Conduct Authority about the £1bn HSBC fraud. He also copied in Jo Johnson MP who was head of the Policy Unit at No 10 Downing Street and the emails were acknowledged on his behalf with an assurance that Jo Johnson had read the emails. See here and here.

In April David Cameron had a meeting at John Lewis, to discuss “John Lewis’ business”:

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Here is a picture from Jo Johnson’s website of him proudly posing with Lord Green of HSBC on the launch of his book:

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On 8 June 2014 I gave a lecture at the venerable Ethical Society in which I exposed all the workings of the fraud and Cameron’s involvement in the cover-up.

On 30 June 2014 I had proof that the FCA and HSBC had  colluded  to cover-up massive fraud and I blogged about it on that date. The FCA has admitted this and it was  partially dealt with by Parliament earlier this year:

I had already exposed Cameron’s cover-up of the fraud, in order to make Stephen Green, HSBC Chair, a Lord. And he had apparently previously  pleaded with Obama not to prosecute HSBC in US. This is a question Senator Vitter recently sent to Loretta Lynch, an attorney with the SEC who agreed the Deferred Prosecution of HSBC in US:

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In June David Cameron had a meeting with BBC DG Tony Hall, for a “general discussion”:

Screen Shot 2015-09-01 at 13.18.19My blog of 30 June was immediately viewed by the FCA:

FCABy HSBC:

HSBCBy Dow Jones (a new visitor, how did they know about it? Their visit was direct, not via a Google search or Twitter link, so someone gave them the link):

dowAnd by the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments, the bankers’ professional body (direct link):

CISIThen in July the Houses of Parliament began visiting my site for the first time (direct link). Note the location, Bromley. Jo Johnson is MP for Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley.

HOPAlso in the same month there were visits by BBC (a couple of these visits relate to my exposure of HSBC shutting down a Gaza charity account, whilst Israel was bombing them), Financial Conduct Authority and HSBC . Here is a log which shows the number of page visits by each. [I have included visits from HSBC US, where they could lose their licence because of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement]

Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 10.06.50Step forward Sajid Javid ex-Deutsche Bank Director, where Jo Johnson had worked, and who’s brother works for John Lewis.

Screen Shot 2015-05-25 at 09.36.02On 31 August  Sajid Javid, Culture Secretary (now Business Secretary) announced that Rona Fairhead, an HSBC director (and Chief Executive of Financial Times when Jo Johnson worked there, and apparently close friend of George Osborne), was to be the new Chair of the Trustees of the BBC, “following an open recruitment process”. She was interviewed by him for an hour on 26 August.  His department’s press release announcing the appointment states (this text does not appear on the announcement of any other public appointment):

Screen Shot 2015-05-26 at 15.36.04This Code of Practice states:

Screen Shot 2015-06-02 at 11.35.01As of July 31 Fairhead was not on the shortlist of candidates. [Applications closed on 27 June] I have found not one contemporary news report from the time that lists Fairhead as a potential candidate [the job was advertised in May]. Even in this Telegraph article of 31 July her name is not mentioned. As the Guardian said at the time “Fairhead, …may not be the well-known name some had been expecting.” Hardly surprising since she was never previously being considered.

The wife of the BBC Director General, Cynthia Hall, works for the headhunting firm Saxton Bampfylde, that allegedly “recruited” Fairhead for a fee of £36,000. They also have this on their website (this text does not appear on the announcement of any other public appointment):

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And here are details of how Sajid Javid’s department lied to me about the appointment in a Freedom of Information request.

BBC has never reported the HSBC fraud or cover-ups. The Director of News at the BBC, James Harding, used to work under Rona Fairhead at the Financial Times and is a close friend of George Osborne.

Various Freedom of Information Act requests I have made to the DCMS confirm that the appointment was not made in accordance with the proper procedures and was indeed corrupt in that the recruitment process was not put out to tender, as required. Rona Fairhead said this, at her pre-appointment hearing with the CMS Committee, “I then applied in the normal way, filled in the application form and went through what I saw as a very standard process.” Why would she feel the need to emphasise that?

In October, when Fairhead started at the BBC, fellow HSBC director and ex head of MI5, Sir Jonathan Evans was quietly made a Lord, without publicity. During the time of her appointment she was in the UK Cabinet Office, responsible for the security services.

It’s probably also worth mentioning her connections to the selection panel:

Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 23.08.32The last reference above is to Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, whilst Fairhead was in the UK Cabinet Office.

See here for some blatant BBC censorship of a damaging HSBC story. See here for more on MI5 and HSBC.

This map shows the connections, click on the images.