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David Cameron Represented Greensail Capital in defending his lobbying of British ministers and officials, Insisting that this is done to benefit the economy, not to preserve the value of his stock options in the company.
The former prime minister made the first public comment on Greensill since its collapse in March. He declined to disclose how much money he made from supply chain finance companies before entering management.
Industry insiders told the British “Financial Times” that the value of Cameron’s stock is close to 1% of Greensail’s value. The company was valued at 7 billion U.S. dollars.
But Cameron told the Special Committee of the Treasury of the House of Commons that the suggestion from Greensail about the potential windfall was “completely absurd.” He declined to disclose the actual figures, but stated that he had stock options and received “a huge sum of money far exceeding my income when I was prime minister.”
He added that he has made “a huge economic investment in the future of Greensill”.
Cameron lobbied several ministers And civil servants, including officials from the Ministry of Finance, tried to ensure the right to use Greensill on 56 different occasions. Two government-run Covid-19 debt plans.
After three months of negotiations, the US Treasury Department decided in mid-2020 not to be interested in Cameron’s proposal.
Mel Stride, chairman of the Conservative Party of the Treasury Department, said Cameron may have been motivated to “take this kind of resistance” at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis in the spring of 2020 because he realized he “has a chance” Making big money is “threatened.”
The former prime minister said: “My motivation for getting in touch with the government is that we have a very good idea to extend credit to businesses.”
Stride asked, when Cameron first had concerns about the company (including May 2020 “Financial Times” report.
But Cameron said that he didn’t realize that the company had encountered serious difficulties until December 2020. “I don’t believe in March or April[2020]. . . Greenhill is in danger of collapsing. “
Angela Eagle, a member of the committee’s labor committee, told Cameron that some of the information he gave ministers and officials “seems more like stalking than lobbying.”
but Cameron defended his lobbyingHe said that in view of the “economic heart disease” that occurred in the UK when the Covid-19 pandemic began, Treasury officials did not consider this to be “inappropriate”.
He added that the reason for “persistence” is that most people “do not have a good understanding of financial technology companies like Greensill.”
Cameron confirmed that although he is not a director of the company and is not involved in the company’s daily operations, he still regularly attends Greensill board meetings.
He told members of Congress: “I will attend board meetings, listen to debates, and make contributions, especially in geopolitical affairs.” “I am not a member of the credit committee, risk committee or audit committee.”
Cameron also tried to win customers for Greensail and help build relationships with important customers.
The road to Greensill’s collapse began in September 2020, when Tokio Marine, its main insurance company, issued a notice stating that it would withdraw the insurance within six months.
Cameron said that although he had been attending board meetings and listening to internal company podcasts, he was not aware of this move.
The former prime minister admitted Greenhill’s “customer concentration” on GFG is too high, A metal group operated by industrialist Sanjeev Gupta.
He also said that reading a “Bible” is “disturbing”. Financial Times The companies listed on Gupta’s loan documents denied any business dealings with GFG.
But Cameron defended Greensail’s approach. He said: “Just because the company has entered the management stage, it doesn’t mean that everything is wrong.” “It doesn’t mean that the whole thing is some huge fraud.”
Cameron said that as prime minister, he has set rules that require disclosure of any meetings between ministers and lobbyists, but not texts and telephone calls.
In his opening speech to the committee, Cameron said that he had not violated the rules, but he admitted that after leaving office, the prime minister’s behavior fell into “different categories.”
He said that because of this, he made a mistake by lobbying ministers and officials through text messages instead of writing formal letters.
Cameron said that working for a failed company was “frustrated.”
He later told the Public Affairs Committee of the House of Commons that it was former Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood who brought Greenseal into Whitehall in 2011 and advised the government on supply chain financing, thereby creating loans for pharmacies. plan.
He said that he had only met Lex Greensill, the founder of the company, twice before 2016, and he had no effect on Greensill Capital’s 2018 pharmacy contract. Six years later, I married your former partner. “
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