Chapter 68
At three o’clock, Ashby was back in Fenchurch Street. As he got out of a black cab and paid the driver, he was spotted by some brokers who were heading for the Exchange.
As they walked past him, one of them said : “Plantation. Ha, burnt to the ground,” and another added : “Good riddance.”
Hearing this, he was more determined than ever to even the score.
In his office, he found an assortment of telephone messages from Riordan, Meredith, journalists, the LRE, Wheeler of Marlowe & Co and also the London office of Felsen & Deitz, the New York attorneys representing Plantation in the Victor 7 case.
All of the lawyers and the market committee at the LRE had seen the articles earlier that day about Plantation’s liquidation and wanted to know if they were true.
In New York that weekend, the news had also reached Felsen & Deitz that Plantation might be insolvent. With the Victor 7 trial approaching in a few weeks time and depositions being taken in London, some of the partners within the firm were worried : should they go on representing Plantation or not ? The problem was, there were conflicting signals from Plantation itself – usually, there was no smoke without fire. If Plantation was about to go under, Felsen’s first priority was to get paid.
Bill Waterford was the partner at Felsen who was running Plantation’s defence. In the end, he decided to go to London himself to meet Ashby personally and find out the truth. If Plantation was staying in business and the case was continuing, he would use the time to go through the depositions (statements before the main hearing) from the London colleagues of Jeremy Lane at Welch, Wenders & Watmore.
After arriving in London, Waterford rang Ashby to arrange a meeting the same day.
“There’s been some wild reports in the newspapers in New York,” said Waterford. “Is any of it true ?”
“You needn’t worry about liquidation,” Ashby told him. “That isn’t going to happen.”
Waterford said he was concerned about the effect it would have on the jury. All the talk of liquidation in the press was bad – it made Plantation look as if it would try anything to get out of paying Victor. They needed to get their facts straight.
As he was staying at one of the grand hotels in the West End and it was all going on Plantation’s bill, he invited Ashby to dinner that evening to talk things over.
Ashby said he would bring along Simon Wells and Ed Meredith who would keep an eye on the Victor case while he was abroad.
Meanwhile, Vincent Wheeler at Marlowe & Co had rung Ashby’s secretary and was told that Meredith was representing Plantation : Wheeler would hear from Meredith shortly about removing Caspian’s injunction.
Wheeler had previously crossed swords with Meredith and detested him violently. For Meredith, the feeling was mutual.
As for Plantation’s business partners, they received a fax notice from Ashby for general distribution : it said that the appeal was under way, that Caspian’s injunction had been granted in Plantation’s absence and that Ashby expected it to be lifted within a day or two. Until the situation was clarified, the halt in Plantation’s underwriting would continue.
The Risk Exchange was a more delicate affair as uncertainty about one of its members reflected badly on everyone. It was also a hub used by the broking fraternity : the syndicates relied on them for much of their business. The underwriters at their desks on the floor of the Exchange listened daily to the wave of bad feeling against Plantation and were more sensitive to the gossip being circulated.
Ashby rang one of the administrators at the LRE and told him that he would walk over to Leadenhall Street for a chat within half an hour. Then he rang Meredith and invited him to dinner that evening with Wells and Waterford.
Promptly at four o’clock, the private line in his office rang and it was Malory. The old boy said that he’d reliably been told that the Perikles Hotel, a small establishment in the north of Athens could be a useful place to start. The owner, Mr Stefanides might be of assistance to him. There were no theatrics – no subterfuge or cloak and dagger stuff. Stefanides knew Athens and the right people, that was all.
“He’s worth a try,” said Ashby. “I’ll probably be away for over a week. When I get back, I’ll be in touch. Thanks.”
Then he grabbed his coat and was on the point of rushing out the door when he was met by Simon Wells.
“Have you seen this ?” Wells held up a copy of the evening newspaper. “Have a look at it.”
There was a full page article – an expose entitled “How To Pillage A Company And Get Away With It” which covered an entire page and included a picture of Ashby. It read :
At a hearing in the High court this week, a judge was told that one of the City’s largest insurers, Plantation Re had diverted tens of millions of pounds to a secret offshore bank account in the name of its deceased founder, James Ashby and that the funds had been misappropriated by him before his death...”
“Gutter trash. How can they print these lies ?” said Ashby in exasperation. “They’ll pay......I’ll make them pay before this is through.”
Then he gave Wells the address of the hotel where Waterford was staying and said he would meet him there later that evening.
Across at the LRE in Leadenhall Street, he had to make his way through the trading floor in the ‘Cube’, past all of the Syndicate underwriting desks and the lines of brokers to get to the lifts for the upper administrative offices on the second floor.
As he walked past them, there were looks of disapproval, mistrust and suspicion on all the faces of the brokers and underwriters who knew him. Some were acquaintances and some were friends but none of them said a word to him. The random sound of hissing and booing broke out. He stopped and turned to confront them : a large number of them in the Cube, in which around two hundred people were milling about, were yelling abuse at him, telling him he was a crook or an upstart and that he was betraying his colleagues to save his own skin. With a theatrical flourish, he bowed to them all and resumed his journey to the lifts.
Upstairs, two of the directors on the market committee were expecting him. After the introductions and condolences for the death of his father, they got down to business.
“We need you to tell us, Mr Ashby in plain English – is Plantation insolvent..... are you having to liquidate the company ?”
“I can answer that in one word – no.”
“But what of all these press reports we’ve been reading about – and the allegations made against your father – and you ? What are we to make of it all ?”
“Plantation has underwritten business at the Exchange for over twenty five years and intends to go on writing business, just as we’ve always done. You of all people should know that my father was a man of his word. And isn’t that what we as insurers, live or die by – our word ? The press reports are lies. There will be no liquidation because we will pay all valid claims. We – like every other underwriter in the market – do not pay crooked claims. That is why we’re appealing the judgment which Hellas Global obtained last Friday – as there is clear evidence of fraud. In addition to that, we will be asking a High Court judge tomorrow to set aside the injunction which Caspian was given in our absence. It is what the lawyers call an ex parte injunction, meaning that the judge only heard their side of the story. We weren’t even told about it.”
“You’re obviously aware of what’s being said about Plantation downstairs. No-one wants to deal with you. There is a great deal of hostility from the brokers towards Plantation.”
“I can assure you, it won’t last. You already know that we’re defending the claim in New York in which Welch Wenders arranged the cover for their client, Victor Oil. The contract was placed with Stirling Insurance and Plantation inherited it. My father looked at the claim very carefully. He thought there was questionable practice in the way the contract was broked. This is something for which we, as a market, have been criticized in the past – by clients and politicians amongst others. I
f something goes wrong, we must answer for it. That is why we think that a jury in New York will agree with us : on this occasion, the brokers slipped up – they failed to tell Stirling the full story about Victor Oil. This meant Stirling didn’t know what they were really taking on – the risk was far higher than what they were told by Welch. Everyone makes mistakes – even the best doctors, lawyers, accountants – and brokers. We all know that. That’s why everyone has professional liability cover. And in this instance, the brokers didn’t do a proper job and got it wrong. Following that, a claim eventuated. Now, they must set things right.”
Both of the directors had been brokers themselves in their early careers and one of them had worked for Welch in the past.
“Mr Ashby, be serious. Everyone at the LRE knows that Jeremy Lane doesn’t fit people up. Both of us know him very well – he’s extremely experienced and thoroughly reliable. He’s Welch Wenders’ lead broker for all of its largest pieces of business coming out of the US into the London market. That’s a huge responsibility to have. Also, he’s very well liked by all of the underwriters downstairs. He’s looked up to by the junior brokers as someone they should follow when developing their careers.”
“But he doesn’t mistakes ?” said Ashby.
“In our experience, no, he doesn’t. That is why many of the blue chip companies go to him – because they trust him implicitly.”
“We shall just have to see whether his reputation is as well deserved as what everyone says.”
“So, you’re intending to go on with the case in New York ?”
“I am.”
“You should understand that it may place us in a difficult position. Plantation has a number of syndicates with us and as such, there are certain obligations it must perform – one of them is not to bring the LRE into disrepute.”
“I don’t believe we’re doing that.”
“Many people would disagree with you. You only have to pick up a newspaper to see that. It would be unfortunate if Plantation’s trading at the LRE came to an end. We would be very sad to see that happen....”
“If it did, it wouldn’t prevent us from carrying on business. We aren’t beholden to anyone – not to the Exchange or any of its members or Welch, Wenders & Watmore or any of the broking firms or anyone else. If our syndicate trading came to an end, gentlemen, it would be more of a misfortune for the LRE itself than for us. There are other options available to us – the Companies market, for example. Or even starting up a new market altogether – in say, Bermuda.”
“Bermuda ? Ha, ha – you must be joking ? Who would ever want to fly out to the middle of the Atlantic to do business there ?”
“Who indeed ?” said Ashby as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door.