Revealed: Luxury life of Brown's guilty banker
FORMER banking mogul Sir James Crosby was nestling in the lap of luxury last night as anger mounted at the fat cat bonus lifestyles of Britain’s financial elite.
After quitting as a senior regulator yesterday, he was holed up at his country mansion, worth well over £1million, looking forward to a cosy retirement with a £10.6million pension pot.
And he insisted he had done nothing wrong despite furious claims he presided over a cavalier culture of risk that helped bring Britain’s banking system to the brink of collapse.
Critics were last night questioning Gordon Brown’s judgment for putting one of the alleged chief architects of the disaster in charge of regulating the system.
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Sir James, 52, resigned as deputy chairman of the Financial Services Authority yesterday less than an hour before the Prime Minister was due to face tough questions in the Common over an HBOS scandal.
Sir James, the bank’s former chief executive, rejected allegations that he sacked a colleague who tried to expose the unbridled risk-taking among senior bankers.
And last night, Sir James appeared unconcerned about growing public fury about the billions of pound of taxpayers’ money used to bail out the banks.
The backlash against greedy bankers gathered fresh momentum on Tuesday when four former bank bosses complained that they had also been victims of the credit crunch because their multi-million pound share holdings were now almost worthless.
Minutes after Sir James’s resignation was announced, he swept into the drive of his massive Yorkshire home in his BMW X5 four-wheel drive boasting personalised number plates.
His spectacular brownstone property near Harrogate overlooks acres of countryside.
It is estimated to be worth well over £1million and is said to have a dozen bedrooms and several outbuildings. His fleet of cars also includes a convertible Mini and a top-of-the range people-carrier.
It is another world from the lives of millions of hard-working households facing the threat of redundancy as the financial crisis deepens.
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Sir James was reported to have earned more than £1.5million a year as HBOS chief executive.
He spearheaded the deal that created the banking behemoth by merging Bank of Scotland with the Halifax.
But serious concerns about the excessive risk-taking were raised in a report from senior colleague Peter Moore – finally released to MPs earlier this week.
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable yesterday revealed how he had personally pleaded with Sir James to get a grip on the bank’s lending.
Mr Cable said yesterday: “It is extraordinary that Gordon Brown ever made such an utterly inappropriate appointment.”
Sir James failed to issue any apology for the crisis yesterday or show any contrition for the current state of the banking industry.
Instead, he issued a statement vigorously protesting his innocence and denying the allegations that he attempted to gag Mr Moore.
He said: “Whilst I am totally confident that there is no substance to any of the allegations, I nonetheless feel that the right course of action for the Financial Services Authority is for me to resign from the FSA board which I do with immediate effect.”
He also cast doubt on Mr Moore’s investigation into excessive risk taking at HBOS.
But Mr Moore hit back yesterday, insisting he had a “significant body of detailed additional evidence” to back his claims.
He said: “People who know me will testify to this but I have to say that I do find it sad that people in such important fiduciary positions find it so difficult to admit their mistakes and to say that they are sorry. Fighting to the bitter end is always worse for all concerned.”
In the Commons, Tory leader David Cameron branded the decision to appoint Sir James to the crucial watchdog role “a serious error of judgment” by the Prime Minister.
In a bruising clash, Mr Cameron said: “Not only was Sir James Crosby appointed as one of the top regulators in the country – and, I have to say, knighted by the Prime Minister for his services – but the Prime Minister has been relying on him for economic advice.”
The Tory leader added: “Does the Prime Minister accept that it was a serious error of judgment on his part to appoint him?”
But Mr Brown tried to distance himself from Sir James and accused the Tories of “trivialising” the debate.
“In relation to Sir James, these are allegations that he will wish to defend. So it is right that he has stepped down,” Mr Brown added.
MPs were shocked by the timing of his departure.
Tory frontbencher Theresa May said: “The timing was significant because it came just before Prime Minister’s Questions. It’s absolutely clear there was a lot of behind-the-scenes activity taking place to make sure that when the Prime Minister stood up, this resignation had taken place so he wasn’t going to be exposed.”
