Guilty? ; This Man Stands Accused of Using Company Law to Dodge Paying Compensation to Clients Who Lost Thousands in the Pounds 2.2 Billion Precipice Bonds Scandal. Is He Culpable or Merely Acting Within His Rights? Our Panel of Experts and Victims Give Their Verdict

Mail on Sunday › July 20, 2004

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Summary

Back in the stock market glory days of the late Nineties, many financial advisers who had been richly rewarded from sales of technology investment funds shifted their attention to the next big commission earner precipice bonds.

The investor-appeal was obvious double-figure income at nearly twice the level of prevailing interest rates. And the bonds sold in hundreds of thousands.

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Guilty? ; This Man Stands Accused of Using Company Law to Dodge Paying Compensation to Clients Who Lost Thousands in the Pounds 2.2 Billion Precipice Bonds Scandal. Is He Culpable or Merely Acting Within His Rights? Our Panel of Experts and Victims Give Their Verdict

According to the Financial Services Authority, more than Pounds 7.3 billion was invested, much of it between 1999 and 2002. Advisers picked up their three per cent share of all the money invested an easy Pounds 219 million commission.

But many of the bonds were far riskier than some advisers led their clients to believe. For investors to at least get their capital back, markets had to go up.

It did not happen. After shares began tumbling, many of the ...

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