HSBC and the mysterious man from HM Treasury

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For some time I have been convinced that there must be a link between HM Treasury and HSBC and now I believe I have found it. The Treasury is responsible for the FCA and the now defunct OFT. Both entities have covered up the HSBC fraud. The OFT buried an order they made against the bank to as not to embarrass David Cameron at the time he was making the bank’s Chairman a lord, and the FCA took no action at all until I made a Freedom of Information Act request asking what action they had taken, when they then simply passed on lies they had received from HSBC.

The connection may be Michael Ellam of HM Treasury who was appointed chairman of the European Union’s financial services regulation committee in April 2011:

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The OFT order was covered up in 2010 and I first reported the fraud to the then FSA (now FCA) in December 2012. Michael Ellam was at the Treasury throughout this time.

Whilst at the Treasury Ellam sat on the board of banking industry lobbyists TheCityUK which “champions UK-based financial and related professional services … a membership body, lobbying on the industry’s behalf..” “Four senior civil servants, including the Treasury’s director general of financial services Jonathan Taylor, and a member of the FSA are listed as observer members of the TheCityUK’s International Regulatory Strategy Group (IRSG) on the body’s website. Despite the name, the group lobbies on domestic as well as international regulation” (from Immoral but not Illegal:the Scandalous Dominatioin of the Financial Sector on British Politics and other Institutions)

In September 2013 it was announced in Reuters that Ellam was joining HSBC with responsibility for developing relationships with government:screen-shot-2016-10-10-at-10-58-27

True to form Cameron gave Ellam an honour in the New Year’s Honours for 2014, the high ranking Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for services to international finance policy. During 2012 the FSA and the Second Lord of the Treasury George Osborne lobbied the US Federal Reserve and Department of Justice not to prosecute HSBC for money laundering offences involving Mexican drug cartels and terrorists. Cameron has similarly rewarded other players in the cover-up: Rona Fairhead, Jonathan Evans, Camilla Cavendish, Tracey McDermott of the FCA and many others.

The Treasury Select Committee is tasked with holding the FCA to account and have questioned them 3 times on their failure to act on  HSBC fraud; but HSBC happily lies to the Committee with no consequence.

According to the Reuters report Ellam joined the Public Sector Group at HSBC:

screen-shot-2016-10-10-at-11-17-30This would fit rather well with HSBC’s other contacts in Ark Data Centres (Lord Evans) which supplies data services to MI5/6, GCHQ, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice, BT etc; Serco (Rachel Lomax); G4S (major shareholder) and the BBC (Rona Fairhead). And most recently it was announced that HSBC will be advising the current Chancellor Philip Hammond on Brexit negotiations.

Since taking up his role at HSBC as a Managing Director Michael James Ellam seems to have gone underground as I can find no reference to him on HSBC sites, or Companies House (as holding any directorships). If any readers can find any recent references to him I would be very interested to hear of them.

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Of course, the government is very conscious of the dangers of the revolving doors between civil servants and ministers and the private sector so have set up the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) which scrutinises proposed appointments outside the public sector. I understand that no applications for permission to take up positions in the private sector have ever been refused. Here is Ellam’s permission:

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Meanwhile, HSBC has also snapped up Jennifer Shasky Calvery of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, from the US Treasury (from Private Eye):

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