Baron Ashcroft and a scam in Belize which is nothing to do with him or his Bank or any of his businesses

The tax haven of Belize in Central America was the brain child of (the now Baron Ashcroft of Belize) Mr Ashcroft had arrived in the small former British colony (Pop. 280,00) at the beginning of the 1990s.

He moved many of his business interests there and bought control of the largest local bank, the Belize Bank, and encouraged local politicians to pass laws between 1990 and 1992 which set up flags of convenience, and secretive offshore "international business companies" and trusts, in return for paying annual registration fees to the government.

Lord Ashcroft the Treasurer of the Conservative Party , has, as a side-effect, encouraged fraud, money laundering, drugs and bribery in a small, poverty-stricken jungle state with corruptible (and corrupted) officials.

The noble Baron's donations to the Conservatives are running at hundreds of thousands of pounds a year - the records of the Electoral Commission show that during the 12 months to last June, the peer donated £209,136 through one of the companies which he controls, Bearwood Corporate Services. He has also made loans to the party of up to £3.6m and provides free flights for the party leader, David Cameron, and other senior Tories via his company Flying Lion worth £19,819.

The noble Baron also bankrolls many local marginal seats and also the political rag edited by Ian Dale (and boosted by the lothasome Andrew McKinley MP who helped expose Dr David Kelly before he was murdered) called "Total Politics"(AKA "Total Bollocks") to the tune of £500,000 this year alone.

This of course is nothing (at all) to do with a dreadful scam being operated from Belize.

Householders are receiving a card bearing the legend "Parcel Delivery Services" claiming a parcel could nto be delivered and if you ring this number they will arrange to deliver it at a sutiabledate and time.

The call is to Belize and connection costs and the recorded message keeps you hanging on at a further £1.50 a minute up to £6.00 .....

A scam that is cleverly designed to work at a time when the world and his wife are delighted to receive unsolicited parcels... this first appeared in 2005 operated by Studio Telecom (based in Belize), and has been resurrected according to Phone PayPlus and they have received complaints from SE London.

This disreputable scam has absolutely nothing to do with Baron Ashcroft. Nothing at all.

Zippity doo-dah,Zippity Yayy - Friday's looking like a very good day ...

The Wall Street Journal today reports that " citing unnamed people familiar with the matter", Freddie Mac is "considering" selling up to US $10 billion in new shares to investors. One of their potential new investors over at Market Watch makes the wonderful pithy point , which raises the level of internet drollery to a new and higher level of informed financial comment.

CEsqy ..
"The invisible hand of the market slowly put its greedy fingers into the short stubby appendages of the latex glove and whispered to the Fed Chairman, "Its your turn today Ben."

The Market Watch library of his shots reveals (186 and counting) yet more compressed wisdom and cheer.

"The stock market, like housing, always goes up, till it don't."

"Rate's are going up, no matter what convoluted form the GSE bailout takes. Foreigners who support our addiction to credit realize they have the opium we don't have....American dollars. "

"President Bush was looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but all he had to do was take a stroll down Wall Street and open his eyes to see the true Apocalypse. "

"WaMu and Wachovia are highly leveraged with toxic loans. Do your own diligence" ***

Have a good day, won't you all.

Chuck Saletta at Motley Fool has the best take on the Hank'n'Ben" End of the pier World Show. Graph (and much more here)

***Washington Mutual (WM) Wachovia (WB) curiously missing from SEC's list of firms stopped from shorting. Thrown to the Dogs asks Mish ?

For good measure "When will people learn that you can’t legislate (for) honesty?"asks Roger Schlesinger at the TownHall ,"Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before "

Northern Wreck to be nationalised - but B & B offers quick buck to be made

A Nationalisation bill for Northern Rock was agreed with the Conservative Party (NOT WITH VINCE CABLE IT SEEMS) Week Ending December 1st, to put Northern Wreck plc into public ownership - and to rush it through in one day before Christmas.

The Government wanted interested parties to submit final deals by the end of the week. Parliament went into recess on December 17 and returned on January 7.

The reason for this was 3 fold.

1. It gave the Gubment room for negotiations in dealings with Branson et al.
2. It put the bidders on notice that the Gubment meant bizniz
3. It pulled the rug out from under Vince Cable the only person to talk sense about Northern Wreck.

They now realise Vince's point that nationalisation is the "least worst solution" and have simply run out of road and with the budget looming on March 12th they want the whole thing buried before then.

Swift Bill rushed through - end of story. Draw a line, Move on... nothing to see here.... and all the gory details will be concealed from public gaze.

Hopwever here is something worth pondering

Bradford and Bingley share price has been sinking fast all year. 44% down over 6 months and a massive drop on last week of 27% to 176 p = Market Cap just over £1 Bn. Last weeks fall due to "Preliminary" results (i.e unaudited so beware) on Wednesday for Y/E 31st Dec.

Total dividend per share up 5% to 21.0p (2006: 20.0p)
Tier 1 capital ratio 8.6%, total capital ratio 15.1% (2006: 7.6%, 13.2%)
Residential lending balances up 27% to £39.4bn (2006: £31.1bn)
Savings balances up 7% to £21.0bn (2006: £19.7bn)
Group net interest margin 1.10% (2006: 1.19%)
Underlying cost:income ratio improved to 42.8% (2006: 44.2%)*
Underlying profit before tax up 5% to £351.6m (2006: £335.9m)*
Statutory profit before tax £126.0m (2006: £246.7m)*
Total customer deposits funded 60% of customer loans (2006: 61%)

Which is all very, very good news excpet the profit but then they have written off losses on sale of commercial and housing association portfolios of £58.0m, treasury asset "impairment" of £94.4m, hedge ineffectiveness of £23.5m and other fair value movements on treasury instruments of £49.7m.

Underlying costs increased by 3% to £280.2m (2006: £271.6m), improving the underlying cost:income ratio to 42.8% (2006: 44.2%) so no worries there of runaway costs.

The total number of cases three months or more in arrears and in possession has increased to 6,170 (2006: 4,337), equating to 1.63% (2006: 1.30%) of the total book. No real problems there although not ideal.

An improvement in loan-to-value across our whole residential lending portfolio adjusted for house price inflation is 55% (2006: 53%) providing a good level of equity.

Then the very good news ..

We grew the Group’s total assets by 15% to £52.0bn (2006: £45.4bn). This growth was due to a 27% increase in residential lending balances to £39.4bn (2006: £31.1bn) driven by record gross residential mortgage advances, up 36% at £14.0bn (2006: £10.3bn). Of this total, £9.7bn (2006: £7.7bn) was originated through intermediaries and direct channels, and £4.3bn (2006: £2.5bn) was purchased from GMAC-RFC and Kensington Mortgages. Our estimated share of net new lending in the UK mortgage market was 7.7%, more than double our share of outstanding balances of 3.3%.

Now remember the Market cap is £1 Bn. For this you get £50 odd Billion of assets and Total customer deposits £24 Billion which is funding 60% of customer loans.

The real worry is the asset mix ;
Buy-to-Let 45% (down from 40% so moving in the right direction)

Self-certified mortgages 16 %

Other residential ( ie traditional owner ocupier) 15%

Commercial and housing association 2% (down from 11%)

Wholesale / Other 22%

That Buy to Let looks unhealthy and if the market turns down current wisdom is that this will be hit first. But. But with increasing immigration and changing lifestyles renting is growing and demand is rising, not slowing, so perhaps this is even a plus.

All in all the shares (yielding 11.9% PE 6.25 !) look a good buy first thing in the morning. ... and if Lord Patel is not the only one working this one out then they could jump over £2.00 early doors giving an instant 10-12 % capital gain.

And of course if the bidders for Northern Wreck ( or anyone else) , now thwarted, have been running their ruler over B & B (which they most certainly have) and decide to make a bid ....?