This event has now taken place but you can watch the video recording of it through our Youtube Channel, get to it by clicking the button below
When
Wednesday, November 3rd from 6pm to 8pm UK time"Where
Online symposium via Zoom.Format
There'll be a great line-up of speakers plus ample scope for discussion and debate.Why you should attend
This event covers a matter that is so shocking that itâs virtually unbelievable; but itâs true.Â
Itâs to do with the allegation that there has been widespread forging of signatures and documents by British banks.
Thatâs so shocking it needs repeating, with a bit of emphasis; the event really is all about the allegation that there has been widespread forging of signatures and documents by British banks!Â
Itâs on Zoom from 6pm to 8pm, on Wednesday 3rd November. You can attend at no cost, but all places must be booked in advance, using the link I provide.
The eventâs title is:Â
âInterim conclusions of the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign – 30 years of alleged systemic crime by banks against UK customersâ Â
If you donât know about the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign, hereâs some background:Â
FACT: In July 2019 the Treasury Select Committee wrote to the Director General of the National Crime Agency asking her to engage directly with the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign and investigate.Â
FACT: Since then, the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign has provided the National Crime Agency with over 700 crime reports and 26 files of evidence, including banks allegedly forging signatures, fabricating evidence and concealing evidence in court cases against customers.
FACT: The evidence from the public has been corroborated by evidence from bank senior manager whistle-blowers, external banking advisors, internal bank documents, and admissions & omissions by bank executives.
FACT: The Campaignâs interim conclusions so far are that some banks have allegedly engaged in industrial-scale systemic crime against UK consumer and business customers resulting from standard business processes or organisational culture.
The event will be about bringing everybody up to speed with what has happened so far, with a detailed presentation about alleged systemic serious organised crime by some banks against UK consumer and business customers, summarising the conclusions so far of the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign.
The session will be of particular interest to:
- Individual consumer and business customer bank victims; the event will show how the evidence in your own case may have resulted from alleged bank standard business processes and culture which some believe has harmed over 1 million customers of British banks over the last 30 years!
- Others who may have suffered any kind of malpractice, malfeasance, misconduct and mis-selling, especially those who have suffered as a consequence of one kind of catastrophic regulatory failure or another, such as the victims of the IRHP mis-selling scandal by the banks, engineered bankruptcies, weaponization of the insolvency service, the mortgage prisoners, those now involved with BBRS, victims of LC&F, Blackmore Bond, Connaught income Series 1, and so on
- MPs, Lords, journalists, campaigners; who will be very interested to know about the key themes, issues, conclusions and next steps resulting from an analysis of the evidence.Â
For us at the Transparency Task Force, this whole saga is very, very worrying on two fronts:Â
- Firstly, that the allegations are having to be made in the first place
- Secondly, and perhaps even more worryingly; why matters havenât already been resolved
We have a great line-up of speakers as usual, including:
- Anthony Stansfeld, anti-corruption campaigner and former Police Crime Commissioner at Thames Valley Police
- Julian Watts, Founder of the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign
- Lord Prem Sikka, Emeritus Professor of Accounting and Finance, Universities of Sheffield and Essex
…so please do take this opportunity to attend, learn about what has allegedly been happening and perhaps most importantly, show your support for those who have had the courage to âstand up, rather than stand byâ and fight the fight – this is about as David versus Goliath as it gets!
Please be sure to attend this one if at all possible; and brace yourself for being shocked!
Here's the programme and timings so far...
—————————————-6:00pm BST—————————————-
Welcome to the symposium, introductions and initial exploration of the main issues;Â byÂ
Andy Agathangelou
 Founder, Transparency Task Force; Governor, Pensions Policy Institute; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Pension Scams; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Personal Banking and Fairer Financial Services; Chair of the Violation Tracker UK Advisory Board
—————————————-6:10pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #1, for 30 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Julian Watts
Founder, Bank Signature Forgery Campaign
Slides used by Julian Watts
—————————————-6:50pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #2, for 15 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Anthony Stansfeld
Anti-Corruption Campaigner and Former Police Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley Police
Document about High Level Fraud by Anthony Stansfeld
—————————————-7:10pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #3, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Lord Prem Sikka
Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Sheffield and Essex
—————————————-7:25pm BST—————————————-
The “Just a minute”-roundÂ
Inspired by the BBC Radio 4 programme, we have asked a selection of our attendees to spend just a minute sharing their thoughts on what has been covered during the symposium. But unlike the Radio 4 programme our speakers wonât be penalised for hesitation, repetition or deviation!
Speakers:
Lisa King
Mark Bishop
Founder, Connaught Action GroupÂ
Ian Fraser
Freelance Author and JournalistÂ
—————————————-7:30pm BST—————————————-
General discussion and debate, 25 minutes
—————————————-7:55pm BST—————————————-
Final conclusions; and suggested next steps and close to the formal proceedings.
___________________________________________________________________
*The programme will continuously evolve so is subject to change.
Julian Watts
Founder, Bank Signature Forgery Campaign
Julian Watts was previously a Partner in the Business Transformation / Strategy consultancy practice of one of the Big Four audit and consulting firms, where he worked at Board level with national and multi-national corporations.
He was also the Editor of a professional journal on business process management. The journal published research papers and practitioner case studies on how companies develop systemic standard business processes and practices to carry out repetitive tasks.
Julian founded the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign which is collating evidence from the public of alleged crimes by banks against consumer and business customers.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Anthony Stansfeld
Anti-Corruption Campaigner and Former Police Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley Police
Former Police Crime Commissioner at Thames Valley Police; and an Anti-Corruption Campaigner
Anthony was elected as Police and Crime Commissioner on 16th November 2012 and stepped down earlier this year.
He was born in Newbury and West Berks has been his home all his life. He is currently a member of West Berks Council and was a member of the Thames Valley Police Authority for several years before taking over as Chairman of the Performance Committee in 2011.Â
He has had a career in both the military and in industry. He enlisted in the Army at 17 and joined the Royal Green Jackets where he saw active service in Borneo and Northern Ireland. He learnt to fly helicopters at Middle Wallop and commanded various Army Air Corps Squadrons, including the Army helicopters in the Falkland Islands in the latter half of 1982.
He spent 2 years as Chief of Staff Intelligence in the Far East. On leaving the Army he was Marketing Director, and then, for 6 years, Managing Director of the aircraft company Pilatus Britten Norman, which had aircraft in over 100 countries. At the same time, he commanded the Army reserve helicopters as a TA officer.Â
While in the Army he spent 4 months carrying out the reconnaissance for the crossing of the Darien Gap in Panama and Columbia, and led the first stage of Operation Raleigh, taking young people through the jungles of Honduras and Belize. He was, for 8 years, a trustee of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.Â
He has an M.Sc and studied international terrorism and global security in depth at university.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lord Prem Sikka
Emeritus Professor of Accounting and Finance, Universities of Sheffield and Essex
Prem Sikka is a member of the UK House of Lords, Professor of Accounting and Finance at the University of Sheffield and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex. Premâs research on accounting, auditing, tax avoidance, tax havens, corruption, corporate governance, money laundering, insolvency and business affairs has been published in major international scholarly journals, books, newspapers and magazines.
He has appeared on domestic and international radio and television programmes to comment on business matters.
He has advised and given evidence to a number of UK and EU parliamentary committees. Most recently, he advised the UK House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee for its investigation into the collapse of BHS and Carillion.
Prem is one of the few UK accounting academics to be honoured for his research by both the UK and the US academy. In 2006, he received the âAccounting Exemplar Awardâ from American Accounting Association (AAA). In 2014, he received the âLifetime Achievement Awardâ from the British Accounting & Finance Association (BAFA). In 2008, he received âWorking for Justiceâ Award from Tax Justice Network; âLifetime Achievement Awardâ from PQ Magazine in 2009; and in 2017, the Abraham Briloff Award from The Accountant and The Accounting Bulletin for promoting business transparency and public accountability. In January 2019, Accountancy Age considered him to be one of 50 most influential people in UK accounting
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Not just banks⌠insurance companies too. But how do they get away with it?
Crooked in-house lawyers and regulators like the FOS; the latter should be allowed nowhere near forgery and fraud.
Inspired by Julian Watts, I am just completing my dossier of papers and evidence on the London & Manchester (now part of Aviva) tabloid loan page scam from which Aviva has been unjustifiably enriched.
My story would be unbelievably without the papers and letters from the perpetrators to support it. MJR