Sunday, April 5, 2009

Ousting Boards and Management

In today's Financial Times is recounted the statement made by the Secretary of the Treasury today on the Sunday Talk shows:

"Tim Geithner warned on Sunday that the US government would consider ousting board members at American banks as a condition for giving the institutions “exceptional” assistance in the future.

The Treasury secretary said the Obama administration would be prepared to force out senior management to protect US taxpayers, and ensure accountability, as a condition for providing money to help banks restructure. “If, in the future, banks need exceptional assistance in order to get through this, then we’ll make sure that assistance comes with conditions,” Mr Geithner told CBS television."

As we have been saying all along there are legal procedures to do this, it is called a shareholder's meeting. Unfortunately the US Government is NOT a shareholder only a debt holder. This is in clear violation of US laws! I find it difficult to believe that not one newscaster not one Congressman has said word one. Debt holders have one option, it is called bankruptcy. This law has been around for a real long time. If the creditor violates covenants and cannot remedy then your remedy is only taking them into Chapter 7. The same holds true with the auto companies.

I am continually amazed that the Federal Government and specifically this current Administration is deliberately violating the most scrde of our laws, those relating to property.

The article continues:

"Mr Geithner pointed out that the administration had replaced the management and board of other companies that had received “exceptional” help, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG.

“We’ve done that because we want to make sure that taxpayers’ assistance is going to make these companies stronger, make sure there’s accountability, make sure it comes with strong conditions,” he said. “And we’ll do that in the future if that is necessary. It’s a single standard, a single principle. And our obligation to the American people is to do what’s necessary to try to bring recovery back on track as quickly as possible.”"

But Freddie and Fannie are owned by the Government and as the sole shareholder they can do whatever they want. Geithner is blatantly wrong. The US Government has zero ownership in banks and auto companies and thus have no rights under law! And we thought Monica Gate was a problem!