Galloway helps victims of cash-scam

[faceless]

Cash transfer business folds as MP calls for probe
04 July 2007
By Ted Jeory

A MAJOR money transfer business has called in insolvency experts as thousands of low-pay workers try to discover what has happened to their cash. First Solution Money Transfer Ltd, based at the London Muslim centre in Whitechapel, has admitted owing up to £2 million to some 2,000 creditors who had been sending money home to Bangladesh. The company stopped trading last Wednesday after an investigation by Bethnal Green & Bow MP George Galloway's office and by the East London Advertiser.Its directors say they now fear for their lives and have asked for police protection... amid a growing tide of anger in London's East End and other parts of Britain.

Galloway wrote to new Chancellor Alistair Darling last week asking for an emergency meeting about the collapse. He was still waiting for a response when it emerged Tower Hamlets council leader Denise Jones had been invited to meet Regulatory Reform Minister Stephen Timms about the collapse on Wednesday afternoon (July 4). Galloway, who was meeting the Bangladesh High Commissioner the same afternoon, was furious about the 'abuse of Parliamentary procedure' over the Minister meeting the council leader. It was Galloway's Bethnal Green constituency office which first exposed the financial problems.

Several Bangladeshi newspapers have now reported the Bank of Bangladesh has asked the UK authorities to investigate the company's collapse. First Solution has mushroomed during the last 12 months into a European network of 80 agents. Insolvency practitioner Panos Eliades was appointed on June 29, as Galloway was calling for a police investigation.

Mr Paliades told the Adertiser: "The company is a sinking ship and we've got to stabilise it. When a body dies, it goes to the undertakers for embalming before burial. That's what we are... we do the embalming part." The company's directors insist there has been 'no wrongdoing.'

Dr Fazal Mahmood in a statement blamed media-fuelled rumours for sparking a 'run' on the company, which he said had forced it towards liquidation. The reports had created a 'lynch' mob, he insisted, while he and his colleagues feared for their lives. One of the biggest losers is Dulla Miah, who deposited £70,200 with the company just days before the collapse. He remortgaged his home in Stoke-on-Trent to send cash back for his family to build a house in Bangladesh. "That money was our future life... now it's gone," he said. "My family are heartbroken and worried about me, that I might have a heart attack."

Mother-of-two Rupa, who holds a job in an East End restaurant, sits upright in a dark Brick Lane office. Her eyes well with tears. She walked into a First Solution office and sent £250 to Sylhet in Bangladesh. She says the money for food for her daughters aged six and nine hasn't arrived... after four weeks. "They said it would take a few days," she recalls. "I complained after it never arrived, but they told me to 'be calm' and wait another week. I'm still waiting."

First Solution was run by four directors until last month,, two of them well known in the East End's huge Bangladeshi community. The main man is Dr Mahmood, a 52-year-old businessman from Walthamstow, who according to Companies House owns 35 per cent of First Solution Money Transfer Ltd and is a director of 14 other British companies. He was also until recently managing director of Channel S Bengali community TV, a position the station's bosses described as 'honorary'. Channel S says it has had nothing to do with First Solution.

Another shareholder was Nazrul Islam, a £25,000-a-year reporter on Tower Hamlets council's East End Life newspaper, who initially refused to comment when contacted at the Town Hall by the Advertiser on June 26. Later, he called back saying he had resigned as a director and sold his five per cent shareholding "a couple of weeks ago" due to 'family commitments'. He remains a council employee... but is temporarily away from work for safety reasons.

The other directors are Gulam Robbini Rumi, 35, from Ilford, with a 35 per cent stake, and Shah Mohammad Abdul Hadi, 44, from Stratford, who has a 25 cent shareholding. First Solution's lawyer Gary Adams insists they are not in hiding and have done nothing wrong. A creditors' meeting is likely early next month.

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[Mandy]

Thanks faceless.

BBC report re FSMT collapse doesn't mention GG's role in alerting
authorities :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6271686.stm

Whilst East London Advertiser (quoted above) mentions GG

[luke]

have you emailed bbc to ask mandy? you don't have to say you're connected in anyway ... but its good to question these things, sometimes they change the article - sometimes you'll get a reply that baffles the mind ...

[faceless]

The victims are those who have been ripped off - I'm sure Galloway can handle not being mentioned...

[luke]

very true faceless, to me though its part of a larger picture that the bbc paints of galloway, highlighting any negative storys and ignoring anything positive

[faceless]

yeah, very true. I can't remember the last news item the BBC featured Galloway in - it was probably him being on Big Brother, or something equally as important.

[Mandy]

Last time I noticed was when the BBC thought GG would lose the photography claim case .. but had to revise the story when GG won

[faceless]

Rescue deal in sight over First Solution collapse
13 July 2007
By Ted Jeory
www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk

THE Government has been forced into backing a Farepak-style rescue package for victims of the First Solution money transfer disaster by MPs George Galloway and Jim Fitzpatrick and by Baroness Uddin. Hundreds lobbied MPs in Westminster on Wednesday (July 11) in a desperate call for help over lost savings. This followed an angry Sunday rally in the East End, a quarter-of-a-mile from the City of London financial Square Mile, where George Galloway vowed to "fight with every last drop" of his blood to get the victims their money back.

He told the rally: "If, just a few hundred yards from here, a financial company in the City went bust, the Bank of England and the Government would be more than quick to step in. If you're rich and white and work in the City, you could be protected and get your money back. But if you're brown and Asian and living in the East End, people can take your money away. We will never accept that."

Meanwhile, the Government was preparing to reveal a rescue package and announce plans for tighter regulations of the cash transfer market. The cross-party package includes using a charitable trust to collect donations, initially targeted at the most needy. As with Farepak, the Christmas hamper firm that collapsed which has cost thousands of families their annual savings, the Government will not donate any money itself. But Mr Fitzpatrick expects he and other politicians will dip into their own pockets to help.

The Government is expected to announce tighter regulations to help prevent another such financial disaster. But these regulations are unlikely to come in before 2009. The moves mark the end of another week of frantic activity. Ten days after the Advertiser and George Galloway's office first alerted authorities of impending First Solutions disaster, police finally raided the company's headquarters at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. Officers from Scotland Yard's financial investigation unit stayed until late last Thursday (July 5), confiscating computers and documents. They are now probing allegations of financial impropriety.

First Solution's directors insisted on their innocence and appealed for understanding, claiming the company had simply grown too quickly from zero to a turnover of more than £80 million in two years. But the Bangladeshi community went into a frenzy of speculation. Internet blogs have gone into overdrive, demanding answers and venting fury that so many poor people have lost thousands of pounds in hard earned cash. Many have also hit out at the East London Mosque which rented out office space to the company's headquarters. This gave First Solution a safe air of security, but one that victims say was ultimately false.

POLICE UNDER FIRE FOR DELAYING PROBE

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised that the police delaying their investigation by almost two weeks might have allowed time for evidence to be destroyed. But the team of specialist forensic accountants are experts in recovering computer data, even when companies believe hard drives have been 'cleared'. Among the many areas police are examining are how the company grew so quickly, matching up totals of customers' cash to First Solution bank balances, and exploring the directors' claims that the £1.7m losses were mainly due to adverse exchange rate movements. They will also be exploring links to other companies in which First Solution directors also had interests. George Galloway's office says these include property investment companies with assets in Bangladesh and Dubai.

First Solution managing director Dr Fazal Mahmood has apologised for the situation, but strongly denies any wrongdoing.

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[faceless]

Here's a 20 minute video of his appearance in front of a committee to discuss this situation.


Direct Download

[Mandy]

Thanks faceless.

[faceless]

Police inquiry as £1.7m fails to reach Bangladesh from families in Britain
Sam Coates, Political Correspondent
www.timesonline.co.uk


A money-transfer company used by members of the Bangladeshi community has collapsed, depriving at least 2,000 families across Asia of funds and causing despair in some of Britain’s poorest areas. Police and detectives from the Insolvency Service are investigating why First Solution Money Transfer, based at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, East London, was unable to deliver at least £1.7 million intended principally for the Sylhet region of Bangladesh.

MPs told Parliament of concerns about the way the company’s directors had acted, saying that it should have been impossible for a money transfer company to lose customers’ money. The directors strongly deny wrongdoing, blaming the speed at which the company expanded as well as currency fluctuations. The case has also raised jitters about the rapid growth of the money-transfer business, which does not come under the remit of the Financial Services Authority. Tower Hamlets Trading Standards initially said that the matter was “too big” when asked to investigate, while the police first referred the matter to Revenue & Customs.

The role of a local TV station serving the Bangladeshi community in the East End is also under the spotlight. Fazal Mahmood, one of the three directors of First Solution, was also managing director of Channel S until the day before the money-transfer business collapsed. Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, has been asked to investigate whether the channel “assiduously and ruthlessly promoted as a community service” First Solution and whether the advertisements were properly billed and paid for. The station’s bosses described Dr Mahmood’s position as “honorary” and Channel S has said that it has had nothing to do with the money-transfer business.

The money-transfer industry, which is not subject to the same regulation as banks, is growing at 20 per cent a year and is now worth £145 billion, according to the World Bank. It grew quickly after September 11, 2001, when Western countries wanted to discourage informal money transfers across national boundaries. The Department for International Development gave £7.5 million to the Bangladesh State Bank to enourage the switch. This led to the extremely rapid growth of companies such as First Solution, which grew from a turnover of £4 million in 2004 to £87 million in 2006-07.

It was popular in the East End of London because it advertised higher exchange rates for lower fees and a quicker service to more outlying areas of Bangladesh than rivals. The company, whose Brick Lane office claimed to take up to £50,000 a day, according to the East London Advertiser, stopped taking orders on June 27 and went into voluntary liquidation.

The matter reached Parliament last week, with a debate by MPs led by George Galloway, the Respect MP – one of his final acts before an 18-day suspension over the funding of his campaign against Western sanctions on Iraq. He said that the alarm over First Solution had first been raised in mid-June when he was told that £150,000 had failed to reach Bangladesh. He alleged that the directors of First Solution knew about the problem but continued to trade as an insolvent company – a criminal offence, which they deny.

Mr Galloway told MPs that Dr Mahmood was convicted in 2004 of two breaches of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and questioned whether he should have been able to build a business of that size. Paul Farrelly, the Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, told MPs: “If it looks like a fraud, sounds like a fraud and quacks like a fraud, it is a fraud.” Anne Main, chairman of the Conservative Friends of Bangladesh, is urging victims to register their loss with the liquidator.

Dr Mahmood, along with Gulam Rumi and Shah Hadi, the two other directors of First Solution Money Transfer, issued a statement admitting that 2,000 transactions had failed to complete, but denied that they had acted dishonestly. “There is no evidence of criminal behaviour on the part of the directors, nor to our knowledge any other staff of First Solution,” they said, adding that they were unhappy at the way Mr Galloway’s “defamatory” remarks had spread across the Asian world. “We deeply regret the fact that, as a result of the rapid growth of the company’s business, the necessary management procedures were not in place to effectively manage and control all the transactions being processed through our agents,” they said. “The directors are confident that in due course we will show completely that the cause of the problems had nothing to do with any impropriety or dishonesty.”

Financing food and education
— Money sent home by Bangladeshis living abroad accounted for £2.9 million in 2006-07
— In Bangladesh money sent from abroad counted for more than half of the household income of recipient families Most recipients of money sent from abroad spend it on food and education.
— 70 per cent of money transfers to Bangladesh are outside formal money-transfer networks. Fee and exchange rate are the two most common reasons for using informal channels
— Money sent home by Filipinos working overseas last year totalled £6.5 billion – about 10 per cent of the country's economy

Sources: International Association of Money Transfer Networks and the Bangladesh Government

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That was nice of them to quote Farrelly eh? The fact that his turn of phrase was a direct and public show of respect to Galloway seems not to be important.

[Mandy]

[faceless]

I think I heard Galloway say it was millions, not billions. So yeah, it is a huge chunk of it that's been stolen/lost/pissed up a wall.

[faceless]

Govt Minister stealing Galloway's thunder over First Sollution collapse
ela.editorial@archant.co.uk
31 July 2007
www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk

THE last time I came across Graham Taylor in 2005 he was masterminding MP Oona King's defeat as her General Election agent. His cupboard of ides clearly remains rather bare, as he repeats the hoary old canard of George Galloway's alleged non-attendance of Parliament (Missing You, Advertiser, July 26). I won't bother to repeat my response to this nonsense for the umpteenth time, other than to say that George's brief suspension (from the Commons) will not unduly affect his continued efforts to ensure his constituents are fully represented against the panoply of rotten policies promoted by New Labour, both locally and nationally. But I do want to raise another point against New Labour's cynicism and hypocrisy.

Last week we were treated to the spectacle of a 'Labour only' meeting in Galloway's Bethnal Green & Bow constituency with Government Minister Stephen Timms on the issue of the First Solution money transfer collapse. As everyone knows, George Galloway has made this issue 'his own' in the words of Ed Stourton on Radio Four's prestigious Today programme, raising it first with the Government, police, and through debate in Parliament. He has ensured the issue has received national publicity, that the authorities have moved with unprecedented speed and that a creditors' group has been set up numbering hundreds. All of this is in context in which he is not standing again for election in Bethnal Green & Bow and therefore cannot be accused of feathering his personal electoral nest!

It is outrageous that New Labour should cynically seek to acquire some electoral benefit off the backs of the victims, by making this a Labour-only meeting with a platform of flunkeys who have done precisely nothing to help the victims of the collapse. Even worse. They did not even bother to contact the creditors' group, despite advertising the meeting as one where the Minister would meet the First Solution victims! Fortunately, the creditors' group went along anyway, despite not being invited, and a useful dialogue with the Minister ensued.

New Labour should rest assured that the public can see right through their cheap and nasty opportunism.
Rob Hoveman
Assistant to George Galloway, MP

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I'm really beginning to hate Labour with a passion. I used to just have a grudging acceptance of them, but not any more...

[Mandy]

New Labour is worse than Maggie was [for those who remember the 1980s] .. at least she was "consistent" in here views, and didn't betray her party.