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Table of Contents
Bank Fraud Exposed - Money out of YOUR Pocket!
Paul McLean is Back to Expose Bank Fraud
Bank Fraud in Australia is Systemic -
part 2 -
part 3
The Foreign Currency Loan Experience in 1980s
Australia: Dwyer v Commonwealth Bank of Australia -
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
The Quade Appeal on Decision vs CBA
-
2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
Jones Letter to CBA Noting Hypocrisy concerning
Dwyer
Dwyer Letter to Kevin Rudd
Dwyer Letter to Malcolm Turnbull, MP
Bank Fraud in Australia Is a Step Toward
Controlling the Economy and the People
Bank Fraud in Australia Is Systemic and Affects
All Australians
The Banks and Small
Business Borrowers: case studies of adversity by Evan Jones
1
-
Introduction
2 -
Goonans
3 -
Paul Buckman
4 -
The Walter family
5 -
The McMinns
6 -
Lynton Freeman
7 -
Ross Delahunty
8 -
Keith Smith
9 -
The Somersets
10-Conclusion
Bank Fraud in Australia Is Systemic and Affects
All Australians
Articles by Evan Jones
The NAB and Its Publicity Grabs
Innovation at the NAB and Grab
NAB accused of dirty tricks in Queensland
Bank Fraud and John Howard
Australian Four Pillars Bank Policy
Document Discovery and the Australian Courts
Final Warning: A History of the New World Order
Banks Behaving Badly
When the Bankers became Con-men
NABbed - an overcharging scandal involving the
biggest Australian bank
A Case Study in the
Adverse Small Business Environment in Australia
The Walter Family and
the National Australia Bank
-
part 2
The Victorian Courts
-
part 2
The Industry and the
Federal Authorities
The State of Victoria
and the Bracks Government
The NAB and the New
Public Relations Program
The Regulators, the Law
and Bank Malpractice
-
part 2
Conclusion and
References
Tony Rigg -Never in
Default
1 -
NEVER IN DEFAULT - Rigg
2 -
Fraudulent Swiss Franc loans
3 -
Insider Trading within a Secret Society
4 -
Corrupt Receiver and Illegal Eviction
5 -
Collusion in Government
6 -
Commonwealth Bank Code of Practice
7 -
Pioneer in Steel Structure Building
8 -
Summary of Argument on Appeal from Federal Court
9 -
Brief for Joanna Gash, Federal MP from Gilmore
Steve Heinrich's Last Submission to Federal
Court
Wilfred Taylor
Corporate Australia
Patricia Poulos, Senior
Consultant and Head of Litigation
The plight of Tony Rigg and others is a disgrace.
What a blight on the Legal System and the government, when the likes
of successful businessman Tony Rigg has had to assume the role of his
own lawyer.
Try though they may, these wonderful Australians are no match for
those who act for the banks and other lending institutions and who,
without
conscience, sacrifice these innocents to the scrapheap.
It is imperative that the battle fought is on 'legal' grounds and the
result obtained is financially beneficial to the battlers.
I am saddened that so many, spend so much of their life, with very
little reward.
I have been where these fine people are, and now have a real
opportunity to assist. I now own an Incorporated Legal Practice -
"NICHOLAS POULOS LAWYERS" and we specialise in litigation (but have a
general practice).
With my knowledge and experience, no stone will be left unturned in
researching documents in order to uncover the truth and put it before
the
courts.
Establish a Family Foundation
to obtain the tax savings, transfer tax liability, create a lucrative
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|
 THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Political Economy
Faculty of Economics and Business
Merewether Building
NSW 2006
AUSTRALIA
1. Introduction and background
The mission statement of the Australian Bankers’ Association reads “Improve
the economic wellbeing of Australians by fostering a banking system
recognised as one of the safest, dynamic and most efficient in the world”.
In February 2002 KPMG Consulting produced a report for the Australian
Bankers’ Association on small business banking. The general tenor of the
report was of a sector in excellent working order, with the claim of 57
institutions offering 720 debt financial products. The tenor of the 2003
KPMG report is comparable. The ABA’s CEO, David Bell, summarised the essence
of the 2003 report, painting a glowing picture of the banking sector’s
catering to small business needs (Bell, 2004). Bell claimed a qualitative
advance since financial deregulation, based on the thrust to user pays
pricing by which the imposition of fees for services have facilitated
downwards pressure on interest margins. Competition was reputed to be
intense: “…business bankers are working hard to retain and attract
customers” says Bell.
Academic opinion has generally painted a rosy picture of the after-effects
of deregulation. Ackland and Harper claim that “popular resentment directed
at the banks in recent times has much less to do with deregulation than with
the current restrictive stance of monetary policy”. They also claim that
calls for “the reintroduction of regulations on banks and non-banks on the
grounds that deregulation has failed to deliver its promised benefits or
unleashed evil spirits of one sort of another” is “either misguided or
naïve” (Ackland & Harper, 1992: p.69).
In a recent book, Straw Polls, Paper Money, the economist David Love claims
that the Australian finance sector has created a ‘web of economic
rationality’ that has underpinned
Australia as a top-ranking modern economy by global standards (Love, 2001:
p.27).1
These claims are
representative of the ‘official’ banking community and the representation
in the respectable media of the sector’s positive contribution to the
economy.
KPMG surveyed the
financial providers, not small business customers. Telstra’s subsidiary
Sensis does survey small business regularly, albeit the financial
dimension is not included in its regular surveys. Sensis’ 1999 Yellow
Pages Survey2 though not ideal, provides rare information on (non-rural) small
business attitude to their financial providers. The myriad and growing
number of providers touted in the KPMG summary and press release distorts
the skewed character of small business providers. The four major banks
comprised the major financial institution for approximately 80% of the
Sensis sample (the percentage varied across States), with the Commonwealth
Bank and the National Australia Bank being the major institution each for
approximately one quarter of all sample businesses.
Of significance is
that there has been a recent gradual move away from the four majors to
other providers. Respondents report dissatisfaction with inflexibility,
lack of general support and poor value for money. However, the extent of
the movement appears to be linked to the availability of the second-tier
banks (hence the variability of the ‘major four’ share across States).
Without alternatives, the movement from the four majors is less.3
|
2 -
There has been no survey as
comprehensive since the 1999 survey. This survey has now been
removed from the Sensis website.
3 -
This phenomenon highlights the importance of a viable second-tier in
Australia, and the adverse implications of the regulatory
authorities’ toleration of the gobbling up of some second-tier
institutions by the four majors. |
However, the four majors have retained
their extraordinary dominance, though it is not from total satisfaction
from customers. KPMG speculates on the reason for this continued
dominance. Full service provision would probably be a factor, but KPMG
also suggests that the majors offer better facilities in risk management
and that ‘brand status’ matters in customer perceptions (KPMG, 2003:
p.38). On the latter criterion, NAB was the most prestigious, with ‘the
4th most valuable brand in Australia’.
With respect, we would suggest that brand status counts for little amongst
small business customers, and that the superiority of the majors on risk
management is not only not transparent but dubious (as is clear from the
case studies cited below). We would suggest that a key reason for the
'major four' dominance is ‘the devil you know’ caution amongst customers;
moreover, the costs of shifting all financial facilities are substantial.
In short, the 'major four' dominance tells us little about the relative
performance of the various institutions, in particular the four majors, in
serving the financial needs of small business.
The 2003 KPMG report notes that “the information contained herein is of a
general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any
particular individual or entity”. This is an astute qualifier.
Information from other sources highlight that the story is more complex
and troublesome. An undesirably large number of small businesses have had
unfortunate experiences with their lenders. Some go through the court
system, and their experience is (partly) exposed publicly in the material
of the judicial process. Much information is passed by word of mouth. At
face value, their experience does not appear to be the result purely of
their own ineptitude. For predictable reasons, the media is not partial to
the recounting of such small business hardship.
Dissonance between small business borrowers and their lenders arose most
dramatically in the cases of an estimated 3600-4000 borrowers in foreign
currencies during the mid-1980s. The offering by major institutions
(particularly Westpac, the CBA and ANZ) of an intrinsically flawed credit
instrument produced a catastrophe for many borrowers. The providers denied
responsibility, fought litigants in the courts or made secret settlements
with troublesome borrowers, to the general indifference of the regulatory
authorities and of Parliament. The Martin Committee, conducting an inquiry
into the banks, heard considerable evidence from all parties on the
foreign currency matter, but ultimately whitewashed the issue. 4
The desire of the official financial community
to paint a benign picture of the post-deregulation period necessitated the
obliteration of the foreign currency debacle from the official account. In
the process, however, the vulnerability of the small business community to
its large corporate lenders became institutionalised.
A rare publicly accessible window into alleged bank lender continued
maltreatment of small business borrowers can be found in the Parliamentary
report of the Reid Committee (1997: Ch.5). Submissions noted problems
related to information disclosure, access to account information and
breach of client confidentiality. More significant was evidence of various
forms of unconscionable conduct, and alleged ‘harsh and oppressive’
conduct with respect to repossession and sales of mortgaged property. Many
submissions were confidential, for fear of reprisal. Nothing came of the
evidence presented to the Committee on this matter. A handful of
substantive changes to the Trade Practices Act and its administration were
effected following the Reid report but none of these have been pertinent
to the bank-borrower relationship. Most notable has been the 1998
enactment of S.51AC of the Act, which formally covers potential
bank-borrower unconscionable conduct, but the Section has lain relatively
dormant in practice.
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- The chapter of the Inquiry report
covering foreign currency loans is a superficial product with the
character of an undergraduate essay (Martin Committee, 1991: Ch.17).
Edwards and Valentine claim that “the Report of the Committee failed
to substantiate the criticisms of the banks. … The detailed
allegations were dismissed”. Tom Valentine was an expert witness for
the banks on the status of foreign currency knowledge during the
1980s, but the judgement here is clearly inexpert. The Committee did
not dismiss the allegations; it merely let them ‘go through to the
keeper’. |
Let us
examine a number of case studies, all involving the National Australia
Bank.5
One could readily construct an alternate list of case studies involving
the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Anne Lampe, the experienced Sydney
Morning Herald financial journalist, has recently reported on several
cases that deserve attention. There is the case of the Timms family, who
bought a furniture business in 1991 with funds borrowed from the CBA,
reputedly on the strength of positive claims from bank staff regarding
viability, only to discover that the business was a lemon (Lampe, 2003a,
2003b, 2003c, 2004a). The Timms case bears a remarkable similarity to the
Kabwand case outlined below. There is the case of Bernie Madigan whose
attempt to close out a mortgage involved demands for further unwarranted
and substantial payments, with Madigan’s costs escalating with battles
through the court system (Lampe, 2004b). There is a Queensland case
pending since 1996 of a Dr Robert Cook, proprietor of three medical
emergency centres whose modernisation was being funded by the CBA under
agreement, with the bank subsequently reneging on that agreement and
foreclosing on the centres. Other cases that deserve exposure arose when
the Commonwealth Bank (following full privatisation) closed its small
business subsidiary, the Commonwealth Development Bank in 1996 (Jones,
2001), with some CDB borrowers getting rough treatment. Case studies
involving the Commonwealth Bank deserve attention on another occasion.
The NAB borrowers’ experience merits recounting as an apparent reflection
of the unequal relationship that small businesses experience with the
major banks. It needs to be emphasised that the accounts below are based
on the representations of the NAB’s customers. These will inevitably be
prejudiced. Nevertheless, the representations highlight issues that
deserve exposure and generate questions that deserve answers. Analytical
commentary is warranted but, with some exceptions, has generally not been
pursued in the stories.
| 5 - The recent report
by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on the NAB’s
currency desk may or not be relevant to the matters under discussion
here. The Executive Summary notes: “’Profit is king’ was an
expression frequently heard in our interviews with Corporate and
Institutional Banking (CIB) staff.” (APRA, 2004: p.6). That the NAB
would be focused on profit is a truism; the issue presumably is the
means by which profit is achieved. APRA’s comments on corporate
culture perhaps offer resonance beyond the specific focus of the
report. One of two cultural themes emphasised by APRA concerned “a
close management of information flows that discourages the
escalation of issues of concern to the Board or to relevant external
parties (such as APRA). … Managing the message was frequently given
equal, or greater, priority than dealing with the underlying issue.
NAB’s tendency to closely control information flows can be seen in
the lack of escalation of issues outside the immediate operational
environment” (ibid.: Ch.6). |
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10
History of Banking Fraud:
The Coming Battle
By M. W. WALBERT
The
Coming Battle documents from Congressional records, newspaper reports
and writings by the founding fathers and others a chronology of events long
forgotten that shaped our fledgling nation from 1776 to 1899. Read about the
manipulation of our money and its supply, the intentional creation of
recessions, depressions and panics, manipulation of the stock markets, and
the demonetization of silver.
Secrets of the Federal Reserve
by Eustace Mullins
Eustace Mullins' carefully
researched and documented treatise picks up from Walbert's expose' of
control of the money supply and the economy and
brings it to the mid 1980's.
The
World Order
by Eustace Mullins
How control of the world's money has inexorably led to an ever tighter
grip on control of the world's people.
Uranium Wars by Leuren Moret
How control of the world's people has inexorably led to wider use of
depopulation methods which include spreading radioactivity in food,
water, air, and the human genome.
Taking Back Your Power
by Allen Aslan Heart
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Stop playing THEIR game. Take back
your power. Stop paying taxes that are not legal or lawful. Stop paying
bills you don't really owe. Stop using THEIR money. There ARE ways if you
open your mind and look for the gaps in their fences that keep the sheeple
in their pasture. Are you chattel or a real person? You are the one who
makes that choice.
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