By Neil Bennett
Where the City’s movers and shakers get a few things off their chest. Today, Neil Bennett, co-CEO of global comms firm H/Advisors, takes the pen to talk the opera, Singapore and the perils of delayed justice.
Real Justice is Swift Justice
It was William Gladstone who said: “Justice delayed is justice denied”, although like all good lines it has been borrowed by many others, and it is a principle in English law that goes back to the Magna Carta.
Unfortunately, our financial authorities don’t appear to agree.
I recently met an old friend and client. Over dinner he told me he was deeply embroiled in a court case involving the Takeover Panel and some decidedly murky dealings. All well and good, but this all relating to things that had happened more than ten years ago. Even more surprising is that the proceedings are still deathly secret, when most of the participants have ceased to care.
What takes these people so long? Are they waiting for the main protagonists to die, or for their law books to turn into history books? By the time they hand down any sort of judgement we probably will have had six different prime ministers and everyone will have forgotten what the fuss was about in the first place (which may indeed be the point).
This is not an isolated incident either. In 2018, I was distantly involved in the collapse of Patisserie Valerie due to alleged fraud. The Serious Fraud Office roused itself into action a few weeks later. But it was only three months ago, five years on, that they actually brought charges. What have they been doing in the meantime, sampling the puff pastries?
Time and again the SFO and Britain’s other financial watchdogs take years, even decades, to bring a case against a miscreant. Real people and businesses suffer real harm in cases of fraud and dishonesty. It is fundamentally unfair to leave them hanging for so long, waiting for any justice.
Contrast this with the efficiency and determination of the authorities in the US. There, the Department of Justice managed to assemble a case against Sam Bankman-Fried and secure a powerful guilty verdict only a year after the collapse of FTX. That was a complex fraud if ever there was one, but the prosecution managed to assemble a powerful and comprehensible case swiftly and secure the vital assistance of key witnesses. The many victims of FTX’s collapse and SBF’s dishonesty will at least have the grim satisfaction at seeing the culprit led away to captivity.
This is an issue that Nick Ephgrave must address as he starts as the SFO’s new director. I don’t believe there is anything structurally wrong with Britian’s legal system that causes these delays – more that this is an issue with process and culture. He needs to read the riot act to his slow-moving colleagues and remind them that real justice is swift justice.
Destination Singapore
H/Advisors (the communications group I help to lead)announced its third (and last!) acquisition of the year last week – this time in Singapore. With the addition of Klareco to our network, we now have a strong Asian presence that we will build on in years to come.
Singapore has always impressed me as a nation. The economy has quintupled in size since 2000 thanks to far-sighted policies, whilst ours has barely doubled. Now it has its sights firmly set on being Asia’s dominant financial hub. A good time to secure our place there.
What to see in 2024
The Flying Dutchman, Royal Opera House, February-March 2024
I became an opera fanatic because of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. On a reluctant school trip to the ENO when I was 15 I was suddenly utterly stricken by the noise and passion on stage and have never really recovered. Opera is an expensive addiction, but not one I have ever regretted.
I am delighted then to see the Dutchman on the ROH’s slate for 2024, with Bryn Terfel once again in the main role. Beg, steal or borrow a ticket.
Quote of the week
I say Bitcoin to the Moon. $50k coming soon
