In case you missed it, an interesting post over at The Economist with some details about the alleged mechanics of the collapse of TIBC.
One question occurs to me whenever I read accounts like these. What were the AlGosaibis doing? Were they having Board meetings that weren't recorded? Didn't they think that as directors they should be attending board and executive committee meetings? That the Chairman should be signing the annual accounts?
I also love the use of the term "Potemkin Bank" - which I believe I've read somewhere else.
Finally, if anyone can make available a copy of the Ernst and Young report, I'd be most grateful. I still haven't been able to get one.
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You should be able to get the E&Y report from the Supreme Court of NY website listed below. The case is MASHREQBANK PSC vs. AL GOSAIBI, AHMED HAMAD and the index number is (601650/2009). I saw that it was listed as part of the exhibits filed on Feb. 5. Equally interesting as the E&Y report on TIBC is the Hibis Group report on Awal Bank. Both are pretty damning of Mr. Al Sanea since they are independent reports to the Bahrain CBB and public prosecuter.
To your comments about the AHAB board - all of the legal documents suggest that the "directors" of TIBC were not aware the were even directors. Al Sanea's employees even admit to forging the minutes of the meetings to show that they were present. Interestingly enough, the Algosaibi's happened to never be present at meetings when external people were present (i.e. outside of Al Sanea's crew). Worth a read...
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASMain
Thanks for your guidance on the documents and your comments.
I had looked at IAPPS earlier and didn't find the documents. Today I did but it took a bit of to-ing and fro-ing. The site seems quite tempermental.
For those interested it's document #83 some 374 pages long.
As to comments on the Board, that's surprising. I would have thought that as major shareholders they would glance at the annual report of TIBC from time to time and then notice they were directors. Or one of their acquaintances would have mentioned this.
The Central Bank of Bahrain has rather rigorous procedures for approving a director or member of senior management. A prospective candidate has to fill out a multi-page form. I guess if one is forging documents what's one more.
If you have any further comments or insights, please post.
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