He grills for David Cameron after lawmakers press for the collapse of Lex Greensill

In 2010, when David Cameron was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he gave a speech criticizing lobbyists. “We all know how it works. Lunch, hospitality, a calm word of mouth, former rental ministers and former advisers are all helping big companies find their way. ”

Eleven years later Cameron’s ongoing lobby has appeared there a treasure trove of private messages Sent to senior members of the Tory government.

WhatsApp messages, text and email – sent 56 times since the pandemic began in 2020 – were released by the former prime minister at the request of a select Finance Committee that is investigating the fall of Greensill Capital. Cameron was a consultant to the supply chain financing company.

Cameron, who is due to give verbal evidence on Thursday, will be horrified to see Lex Greensill as his former boss 11 MPs themselves grilled on Tuesday evening.

In three hours of questioning, MPs repeatedly asked the Australian financier about the flaws in his business – at one point he was forced to deny that he was a “scammer”.

MPs report news of loans from Greensill Capital to metal conglomerate GFG Alliance suspicious invoices which have created suspicions of fraud.

“We would never have been able to fund collections that were fraudulent by us or my company,” Greensill told the committee.

Lots of messages

The FT first appeared in mid-March when Cameron – once Greensill’s stock options were worth $ 10 million – approached the Treasury and Downing Street high figures last year seeking government support.

New documents show how Cameron is signing his “DC” messages – he was lobbying even more widely than previously thought by the government, including his old friend Michael Gove, including the Cabinet Office minister.

He saw a slew of messages over the past three months that the former prime minister was holding on to the flattery of unsuccessfully changing Covid’s rules on debt schemes between March and May last year for the benefit of his client Greensill Capital.

In one of 13 messages sent to Rishi Sunak, Cameron praised the chancellor: “You are doing a great job – keep going.” In a text on April 29 last year, he said there had been great progress in negotiations between Greensill and the Treasury, “thank you for that.” Sun responded directly to both texts.

In May, as the Treasury was denying Greensill’s requests, Cameron tried to bow to Sunak by saying again: “My apologies for worrying you again. We should get to that response sooner.”

In the documents, Cameron sent messages to other former colleagues including Nadhim Zahawi, then business minister. Greensill wrote to Gover about the situation. “The first thing I’m talking about with Rishi is tomorrow. I’m still stuck, so can I call? Thank you! DC.” In a separate message he praised Gove for the “excellent work” he is doing.

Cameron also wrote to Richard Sharp, a banker who was advising Sunak, who is now the president of the BBC, to denounce the slow progress. “I’m afraid the ministers will have to stick around a bit more,” he complained.

Former Prime Minister Tom Scholar sent permanent Secretary of the Treasury. “We’ll see Rishi get an elbow or a shoe kick. Love Dc [sic]”He said in another message to Scholar that” you are happy with the management. “

In the week of March, when he sent messages to Scholar almost every day, he apologized: “I promise one last point that I will stop being annoyed.” When the scholar was not very positive, he responded the next day by complaining and threatening to call the cabinet ministers: “It looks like this is evil. Now I’m calling CX [Sunak], Gove, denei “.

New Treasury documents show how he consulted with industry to supply chain finance providers with access to the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility facility – in June to rule out the idea.

Cameron stressed that it was not until December last year that he became aware of Greensill’s economic difficulties.

But Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, said in a presentation to the Finance Committee that the BoE first encountered a “potential vulnerability” in Greensill in March 2020, when Cameron began to intensify his lobbying activities.

Risk of concentration

Lex Greensill told the Finance Committee on Tuesday the main reason for the group’s failure Decision taken by Tokyo Marine, its main insurance provider, does not renew coverage, Covid among the wider hustle and bustle.

However, emails posted in various lawsuits show that the insurer issued insurance to Greensill for providing excessive coverage. Cameron personally lobbied the subscriber.

The loans created by Greensill were sold in funds to Credit Suisse. Insurance provided coverage against underlying debt defaults, which was critical to the smooth running of the process.

Greensill said he has taken “full responsibility” for the collapse of his company and admitted he has a risk of concentration and “excessive reliance on insurance” that “eventually disbanded” the business.

He stressed that his company’s loans are backed by real assets, although he admitted that up to 20% of the group’s loan last year was based on “future creditors”.

Documents released by the finance committee also clarified how Greensill put pressure on the UK Financial Conduct Authority, which is now investigating the company.

The FCA has previously examined issues related to GAM, the Swiss asset manager invest hard Greensill was forced to liquidate some of its products in 2018. He questioned staff and plagued them via internal emails after a whistleblower raised concerns, the FT reported in 2019.

At the hearing, Lex Greensill wanted to answer questions from Labor MP Emma Hardy when the FCA investigated Greensill when it examined GAM issues, not being sure if she was allowed to discuss the issue.

Separated in December 2020, Lex Greensill met with Chris Woolard, who was leading a review of the FCA in the unsecured credit market, to discuss how a Greensill company was working with the NHS staff. collect the paycheck day by day.

Woolard asked “where does that make money?” and Greensill said it is “additional” to the NHS “because they are already doing a lot with NHS contracts,” the meeting notes.