| Keep New Labour ethos - Mandelson Lord Mandelson has warned new party leader Ed Miliband not to reject the legacy of New Labour or he will not win the next election. bbc.co.uk |
Pupil premium 'will make life tougher', says Nick Clegg Nick Clegg today defended plans for a £7billion fund to improve social mobility, despite admitting it would make life "harder" for the current generation. telegraph.co.uk |
Former City CEO admits paying bribes for contracts Julian Messent, former CEO of Lord Pearson's PWS insurance, pleaded guilty to funnelling payments of £1.2m to officials in Costa RicaThe former chief executive of a City firm founded and chaired by former Ukip leader Lord Pearson today admitted paying "very substantial bribes" to win contracts overseas.The 50-year-old chief executive, Julian Messent, pleaded guilty to funnelling corrupt payments of £1.2m to three officials in Costa Rica, although he claimed other senior managers at the firm knew about the bribes.Messent had run the PWS insurance firm from which Lord Pearson, who stepped down as Ukip leader in September, made his fortune.Hodge Malek, QC for the Serious Fraud Office, told Southwark crown court in London that the "very substantial" bribes were paid in 41 instalments between 1999 and 2002.The covert payments were routed through bank accounts in the names of the wives of two of the Costa Rican officials and through accounts in Panama and the US, and a travel agency in Florida.David Perry, Messent's QC, said he had not concealed the illicit payments from other PWS staff.He added that the details were known to the heads of the finance department and the compliance unit, the internal watchdog responsible for monitoring the conduct of staff. He said it was clear that "the corruption could not have been conducted by Messent alone".He also claimed that arrangements for the corrupt payments had been "inherited" by Messent when he became head of the firm's Latin America department in 1996.Messent was appointed the firm's chief executive in 2003 and resigned three years later after investigations into the payments began.Lord Pearson was chairman of the company when the corrupt payments were made. The peer was not suspected of any wrongdoing by the SFO. Last year, he told the Guardian that he knew "absolutely nothing about the alleged payments".Malek told Judge Geoffrey Rivlin that the exposure of the bribery was "one of the factors" in the firm going into administration in 2008.He said that the SFO had decided not to prosecute PWS because the firm, which has been sold, had a "substantial deficit" in its pension fund. The only penalty the firm would have faced was a fine, and the SFO decided that any fine would only have been paid out of the pensions of the staff.He added that the SFO believed that Messent, of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, was the "directing" mind behind the corruption. He said the three Costa Rican officials "were in an ideal position" to select which firm would get the contracts.Messent is due to be sentenced on Tuesday.It is the latest prosecution by the SFO, which is struggling to crack down on foreign bribery and rid Britain of its reputation for being lax over this kind of offence.Margaret Thatcher made Pearson, an old Etonian, a peer in the 1980s. He and two others founded PWS when he was 22.Insurance industrySerious Fraud OfficeCosta RicaUK Independence party (Ukip)Rob Evansguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Freedom of Information Act gives protection to royal secrets The Royal Family and the Royal Household were exempted from direct requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Royal Household was not included in the Act’s definition of a public authority, so members of the public are unable to access information held in the Royal Archives. Public bodies can be asked to release information that may include details about the Royal Family, but protection also covers communications between public bodies, such as government departments, and the Royal Family or Royal Household. timesonline.co.uk |
Return Fares: Ministers put supersaver plan to rail bosses MINISTERS have asked train companies for ideas to cut the cost of running the railways — and have told them they can keep half the savings. The idea is to give the firms an incentive to agree to changes in their contracts. timesonline.co.uk |