BHS and Phillip Green

Nice report here for anyone with any doubt about the man....

A key reason, they argue, lies in the fact that during his 15 years in control of BHS, Sir Philip took more than £400 million out of the firm via special dividends paid to his wife Tina, who lives in the tax haven of Monaco.
Though perfectly legal, the tax-efficient payments meant that cash which might otherwise have been used to bolster the pension fund or, indeed, to invest more in the firm’s long-term future, was instead funnelled into the family coffers.
By then offloading BHS, at a time when it was losing around £85 million a year, Sir Philip was able to relieve himself of the duty (or ‘covenant’) to fulfil commitments to future pensioners who belonged to the by now troubled scheme.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3510128/A-100m-floating-gin-palace-pension-scandal-scupper-Sir-Topshop-Philip-Green-faces-calls-stripped-knighthood-buys-yacht-BHS-teeters-brink-bankruptcy.html#ixzz46puvUOAR
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Yes. It sounds like Philip Green has been a right bugger. And now the workers have got pay. Selfish fat-cat.

It's people like this who make me so want to believe in karma. They have to be punished somehow. But I'd rather the punishment came in this life, so I can witness his downfall. Now that would be sweet.

Falling off one of his yachts, Indinana?
Would that be enough?
Just finished catching up on Follow the Money last night. I wouldn't advocate that solution, although I could see it coming.

I think the chap (his name has gone completely) who bought it for £1 helped himself to quite a bit of money too. It makes me cross that people who have gone bust in a big way are then allowed to buy yet another company and then let it fail. Not that I am being pro Phillip Green either but he has very kindly offered to pay in about 15% of the pension fund short fall.

Just thinking about BHS, it was never really my cup of tea (apart from lighting and some of the home stuff) but it really does seem to have got worse and has no online presence.

Yes, somehow it never exactly enticed me in. Shame for the staff though. Wonder what will happen now?

No, dj, I don't wish any physical harm on him, but would like to see him forced to make good the pension scheme so the BHS workforce don't suffer. Paying in 15% of the shortfall doesn't cut it as far as I'm concerned. And yes, the new owner should be made to share that burden too if he has been syphoning funds from the company.
I have no problem with people who are clever enough to make themselves super rich and spend obscene amounts of money on yachts, private jets and so on. Good for them. But when they turn their backs on the people who worked like donkeys to enable them to make all that money, I am somewhat less than happy for them.

If one good thing has come out of this disgraceful situation it is that all of us here on Gn, so far, have agreed with each other!

Phillip Green should be made to stump up more than the derisory amounts that he has offered to pay towards the pension scheme. He asset stripped the company, bled it dry and also used tax dodges to avoid tax on the plundered money.

I used to by DS clothes in BHS when he was a little chap and also used to buy school trousers shirts and summer dresses for DS and DD, but since then I haven't been in the place. Now, I have previously taken a stand against Mr Green and his tax dodging ways and thus did not use any of his shops once I was aware of the depth of his dealings, but I have to say the shop had lost its way, a bit like a poorer version of M and S. The staff were generally pleasant but the women's clothing was chiefly nasty man made fibre and old fashioned.

The charlatatan, Chappell who bought the company from Green for £1 was a failed businessman and a bankrupt who also plundered millions from the business.

The business secretary needs to look into this mess, this stinks of asset stripping and fraud.

I understand the yacht reference DJ, presumably Maxwell and his yacht? The other pension plunderer who caused a change in pensions protection.

It makes me very very angry when hard working people ( recognise that phrase?), do the right thing, and invest in their company pension and then get shafted by the greedy bastards who own the company.

It seems to be a classic predator tactic. Buy a company, empty its bank account, load it with debt - and then walk away. Rats deserting the sinking ship they have chewed the hole in.

What is needed is legislation that does not permit a purchaser to fund a purchase by putting the purchase loan on the purchased company's balance sheet and that also insists that the owner of a company has to pay back any money withdrawn from a firm, over and above a dividend rate the company can sustain, if the company goes down within 5 years of the withdrawal.

I was quite fond of BHS, most of its offering was pretty non-descript but every so often one would find a pearl of a garment,. One dress I bought there drew compliments every time I wore it.

I think we should all boycott his other shops....supposedly he gave his wife millions....

Yes, his wife is domiciled in Monaco, and rarely leaves the state. All the shares belong to her so she receives all the dividends and pays tax under Monte Carlo's tax regime, which means, hardly any at all. A tax dodge which is very difficult to fault. It is neither avoidance or evasion because, as I understand, she rarely if ever visits the UK and pays tax in the country she lives in for most of the year.

The only thing to be said for Philip Green is that he clearly has a rock solid marriage and trusts his wife completely.

I don't know how some people can sleep at night ....

Country by country reporting should stop it.
The EU is trying to sort it at the moment, but the UK does not want to do it.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/04/12/caroline-lucas-demands-country-by-country-reporting/

However, the EU proposition is not strong enough.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/04/12/christian-aid-slams-eu-country-by-country-reporting-proposals/

Well I've always thought Phillip Green was an unpleasant fat slob of a man (Judgemental? Moi?) And this just goes to prove it. You'd think that a pension fund would have some sort of protection and there would be a limit to the amount of money that can be taken out of a company - but I suppose I'm trying to apply logic again.

Years ago BHS used to be brilliant for lighting and household stuff.

I don't know why BHS hasn't been doing well over the last few years. I buy quite a few things from there and I think it's much better value than M&S.

I agree with everything that's been said about Philip Green but it appears that the current owners have a lot to answer for too. Apparently one of them has already been made bankrupt twice. It was just being discussed on the Sky Press Preview and, for once, Andrew Pierce of the Mail and Kevin Maguire of the Mirror were in agreement - this is an absolute disgrace.

Philip Green has a beautiful large Estate and house just down the road from us, here in Herts. It's where Simon Cowell got married. Every time we drive past I think of him and his greed. It also seems that after he sold BHS it was then asset stripped.
St Albans BHS certainly looked down at heel when I went in last month.

There was a discussion on R$ this morning about the problems with the pension fund. It seems that not all the problems lie with Sir Philip. Some of the problems lie with the poor investment strategy of the pension fund trustees, who are, or should be, entirely independent of the company.

It was said that most pension funds expect their fund and its income to grow roughly in line with the stockmarket, which has been reasonably buoyant. The BHS pension fund return has been comparable with keeping all their funds in a deposit account at the bank - and we all know how low their interest rates are.

It would appear that the greedy sod is not going to get away with it all. There are rumblings of discontent on all sides of the political spectrum, with the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror being in agreement for once. To add insult to injury, the man is reported to be incredibly arrogant and rude, quite unpleasant and his wife is described as a screaming fishwife; when a reporter approached her on her yacht to ask her opinion on the fall of BHS she was said to have screamed at him and told her deck 'staff' to turn the hose on him. Classy eh?

I would like to see him stripped of his knighthood when this is all over. As to boycotting his shops, yes I do, and have done for several years, but then that may harm the jobs of the poor devils who work for Arcadia Group so it is tricky, I just dont want his ghastly wife getting anymore of my hard earned post tax money.

GillT57 Hear! Hear!

Not just the knighthood.

"Alas, Blair gave him the knighthood he wanted for “services to the retail industry”. And David Cameron? After King Phil repaid Labour for its obsequiousness by publicly backing the Tories in 2010, the new PM asked him to review government spending and procurement. Phil reported back that there’s a lot of waste. Angels wept."
From a Guardian article today.

The man Philip Green 'sold' the company onto seems to be just as dodgy as Green himself. He too put in his thumb (and several fingers) and drew out a whole bowl of plums before chucking the company into receivership.

Green also sold some of the assets to his Stepson-in-law, who within a few months had sold them on again much to his profit.

What was the research recently that showed that many top managers had psycopathic tendencies?

This sounds very dodgy to me. The former owner of BHS, Dominic Chappell, says that he wants to buy BHS now that the Pension Protection Fund is taking over the pensions. This was the man who owned BHS when most of the pension fund disappeared. Apparently he also tried to remove £1,500,000 from the chain just before it went into administration.

Regrettably, all the (rightful) reporting about the Hillsborough verdict has knocked these two greedy, thieving individuals off the front pages, it is as if, as a country, we can only deal with one scandal at a time. It is time questions were asked in the House about this pair, time the Department for Trade and Industry or whoever is in charge now looked into it. Yet another wonderful Blair legacy. It was when Green became an advisor to the government that I boycotted his shops DJ, his advice to the government was unbelievable, and included lengthening payment times to suppliers a la Tesco business model, never mind that small suppliers were going bankrupt. He is totally immoral.I really dont know how some people sleep at night.

I know nothing about how pension schemes work in these large businesses. Could somebody enlighten me as to how people like Green seem to use this money as capital to run the business. There should surely be a scheme that sets these monies securely on one side so that they can't be filched.