Report : Tricia Takanawa

Monday, 31 October 2011

CBA and Slater & Gordon collude to deny hundreds of CBA victims a fair settlement.

The compensation in the Storm Resolution Scheme offered to the CBA victims after Storm was forced into voluntary administration by CBA was calculated by CBA in collaboration with Slater & Gordon solicitors. This compensation package was engineered behind closed doors by CBA and Slater & Gordon successfully covering up the full extent of CBA’s margin loan vulnerability despite repeated efforts by the chairmen of the CBA victims support group to have input. In the end the statements by the chairmen of the CBA victims support group indicate that they were simply bludgeoned into rubber-stamping the CBA offer. The CBA / Storm Resolution Scheme was promoted to the world at large as a fair compensation package for CBA victims when all along it was a CBA ‘Get out of Jail’ work of genius.

Damien Scattini from Slater & Gordon is reported to have said that ‘customers who took out margin loans to invest with Storm would be remunerated for 90 per cent of the funds they used as security on the loan’ (fig A). This deliberate play on words by Mr Scattini created much excitement & enthusiasm among Storm clients / CBA victims giving them false hope.  The plan was obviously to encourage as many victims as possible to accept the CBA package.  The value of the actual compensation which was offered in the CBA / Slater & Gordon scheme was an amount only equal to the buffer (10%) discounted by a further 10% (fig B).  This equates to a mere 9% of the value of funds needed as security and not 90% as asserted by Mr Scattini. To further add insult to injury Mr Scattini reportedly said, ‘the agreement was as good a result as clients could have hoped for on a good day in court’.

Interviews with numerous Slater & Gordon clients revealed 2 key points. The first being that many who had accepted the meagre offerings from CBA indicated that these offers were accepted under protest. Most victims who accepted these offers were exhausted, did not have the funds to get justice in court and simply were at a point in their lives where they just wanted to ‘move on’. A great number expressed regret at being forced to accept these offers and in doing so signed away all rights for any future additional compensation from the CBA. Many also felt guilty in accepting these substandard offers, believing that it would then be more difficult for other fellow Storm clients to stand up to the CBA. Secondly, a number of clients believed when they were told by CBA (and reinforced by Slater & Gordon) that Storm had been issued their margin calls but did not pass them on. This false statement left the clients with the impression that Storm was at fault, that CBA was blameless and the white knight that had come along to help them. Accordingly these clients felt there was no option but to accept CBA’s ‘charity’ without questioning CBA’s need to have them sign away all future claims against the CBA.

There is however a prevailing view that should former Storm clients have accepted a CBA offer either ‘under duress’ or under ‘false pretence’, then there is strong avenue for seeking further compensation. This path requires evidence and the Plain Truth already has a significant volume of material supporting this. The evidence in our possession has been gathered and supplied to us by a few Storm clients dedicated to justice. We know many people have material in their possession which is strong and useful (even if they may not
think so) and some may not be aware of the potency of these documents. The Plain Truth asks that you provide any evidence you may think is relevant. Such evidence may take the form of:-

– Contracts

– Documents
– Diary notes
– Transcripts
– Audio tapes
– ANY (old or recent) margin call notices

Please forward copies only to The Plain Truth, PO Box 2783, New Farm QLD 4005.

Report : Jimmy Olsen

Saturday 29th October 2011

Content : CBA notice of demand, CGI margin call, Storm default notice

Desperate CBA distorts reality by calling a default on a margin loan in dispute, in order to avoid the courts.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) 3 year campaign to sweep its victims along with Storm Financial Ltd (Storm) under the carpet for minimum cost has had only limited success following the ruining of Storm and its clients by CBA. On 8 Jan 2009… one (1) day before CBA was due in court for its misleading and deceptive conduct directions hearing… Storm was ambushed with notices of demand from the CBA to repay its newly established facility and its equipment finance facilities on or before the next day 9 Jan 09. This underhanded action by the CBA conveniently forced Storm into voluntary administration. The CBA claimed that Storm was in default with its margin loan facility since 10 Oct 08. The extent to which this manoeuvre by the CBA was complete taurus excretus can be seen in the following points:-

1. Storm was disputing and had advised the CBA that Storms as well as many other clients’ margin loan defaults were unsubstantiated. The Plain Truth now has evidence to show that the CBA knew at the time that their client data was wrong but CBA chose to proceed with the defaults because the banks liquidity was diminishing, it needed the money and the CBA knew that possession is 9/10 of the law.

2. CBA had executed the documentation for a $30m facility to Storm on 24 Oct 08…being 14 days AFTER the date CBA claims Storm was in default on its margin loan. This facility was for the purpose of paying out an existing $10m Macquarie facility with the remaining $20m to be used as working capital for Storm. How is it possible for the CBA to have executed a $30m facility with a company who they later claimed was already in default? The answer is that Storm could not have been in default in their eyes.

3. CBA actually advanced $10m of the $30m facility on Wed 29 Oct 08 to refinance the Macquarie Bank facility

4. The CBA charges Storm AND draws the relevant fee and stamp duty from Storms account for the full $30m facility.

5. In addition to the $30m facility, CBA advanced a further $4.725m to settle the purchase of Storms new Melbourne building on 5 Dec 2008. This advance occurred almost 2 months after the alleged date of default.

Clearly CBA was not in reality concerned with Storms so-called ‘margin loan default’ because, if it were then the CBA would not have extended any facilities to Storm after 10 Oct 08. Following the findings by Justice Greenwood in the Federal Court on 24 Dec 08, that the CBA had a case to answer it is obvious that the reason the CBA defaulted Storm on the 8 Jan 09 was to prevent Storm from proceeding with the misleading and deceptive actions against the CBA in the Federal Court on the 9 Jan 09. An insider has informed The Plain Truth that, at that time there was a group of CBA executives, desperate to prevent the banks conduct in covering up their actions from being made public, especially through the courts. This was an abuse of power by particular CBA executives and likely to be criminal, despite that some of them are no longer working for the CBA.

Content : CBA notice of demand, CGI margin call, Storm default notice

Documents

– 2008.12.29 CBA notice of demand

– 2008.12.31 CBA notice of demand

– 2008.12.31.2 Court summary of Judgement

Editor : Perry White

Friday 28th October 2011

The Plain Truth commences exposure of the consequences of players in the GFC.

Our maiden investigation is both contemporary and relevant to thousands of people and indeed Australian society as a whole. Much is written about unavoidable disasters such as bush-fires, cyclones, floods and earthquakes and the tragic effects that these natural, uncontrollable and unavoidable occurrences have on thousands of people.

There are however events such as wars, terrorist acts and acts of deception which are often no less tragic in their effect and can be more wide-spread in their range of devastation.

One such event is an act of deception perhaps unprecedented in its viciousness and complexity.  We refer here to the sad and sorry saga of the actions by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and its role in the collapse of Storm Financial Limited (Storm).

The consequent destruction of the financial lives, dreams and aspirations of thousands of Australians has been the subject of many a tale most of which are either partially or completely fabricated.

The Plain Truth has approached this story by reviewing much of what has been written, including the conclusions drawn by the parliamentary enquiry into financial products and services in Australia.

In spite of numerous representations to us that there were serious flaws in the reporting of the CBA / Storm event, we commenced our process by assuming that the general prevailing consensus (particularly in the press) and the general conclusions arrived at were correct. What we were interested in was the evidence and proofs that led to this consensus and the conclusions. After many months of searching for this evidence and proof we surprisingly discovered a landscape littered with lightweight opinions, myths and an environment almost completely devoid of facts and supporting evidence. We did find that facts and supporting evidence actually existed but we suspect these facts and evidence were suppressed for the purpose of protecting the CBA. Our task suddenly became that much more difficult requiring us to dig a lot deeper in search of the real story. This led us on a path of discovery for actual evidence as opposed to innuendo and self-serving statements.

The big surprises were:-

a) The discovery that the evidence actually pointed in a direction away from Storm and its people (rather than to Storm), and

b) The extent to which Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) was responsible for much of the cover-up and subsequent pain and suffering by the banks victims.

c) The discovery that ASIC was as responsible as the CBA for the collapse of Storm and the devastating effect that this collapse had on thousands of lives. It is arguable that ASIC was more responsible because after all ASIC is the policeman.

The mandate of The Plain Truth is not just to expose those that we know to be responsible but to make them accountable.