Northern Rock Adam Applegarth gets the sack - far too fucking late in the day

Northern Wreck issued a statement today

Thy blithely say "The Company’s holdings of capital notes in structured investment vehicles (SIVs) totalled £319 million as disclosed on 14 September 2007" ... well "we have calculated that an impairment charge of £118 million should be made in relation to this investment portfolio,"ie something the Directors said was worth 319Mn is...er...er..now worth ...er...201 million.

"The Company originally had an exposure of £35 million to three SIV-lite investments, which will require an impairment charge in the current year income statement of £32 million despite one of these vehicles having being restructured into a cash-flow CDO in early September." ) er ditto something the Directors said was worth 38Mn is...er...er..now worth ...er...2 million.

"The Company’s portfolio of US$ CDOs amounts to £167 million with a mark to market value of £36 million at the end of November 2007." er ditto something the the Directors said was worth 167 Mn is...er...er..now worth ...er...36 million.

This is what Vince Cable said in the House of Commons 2 days ago...

"We now have an extraordinary situation whereby the chief executive of the bank, Mr. Applegarth, who drove the bank on to the rocks, is still sitting in the chief executive's chair driving the company and managing the Government's taxpayers' money."

"Mr. Applegarth, the chief executive. He is still there, sitting in his chair at the bank. He understood all this and, at the peak of the market, he sold his shares. He was urging the small investors—to whom the hon. Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) has rightly drawn our attention—to invest in his bank while he was selling up. We all know what happened. He invested his money in a very large country estate and bought a fleet of sports cars for his wife. That person is still at his desk at the Northern Rock bank; he is directing its affairs and is responsible for taxpayers' money. That is one of the unbelievable aspects of how this whole affair has been managed."

The Mr Toad figure of Applegarth will also receive dimished pay off of only half his vastly inflated salary. Rhe worthy depositors of Northern Wreck would be well advised to hang him from the nearest lampost, the lying, cheating, deceitful rotten bastard.

Anyway - Victory for Vince - the gubment have started to take some notice of what he says.