Anthony Parnes

Last updated

Anthony Parnes
Born
Anthony Keith Parnes

1944or1945(age 77–78) [1]
NationalityBritish
Occupationex-Stockbroker
Known forOne of "the Guinness Four"
SpouseDenise Ratner (divorced)
Relatives Gerald Ratner (brother-in-law)

Anthony Keith Parnes (born 1945) is an English ex-stockbroker, who was convicted and jailed with Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, and Jack Lyons in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s; they collectively became known as "the Guinness Four". He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years on charges of false accounting and theft

Contents

The son of a London gown manufacturer, Parnes started his working life as an office boy with a stockbroker. Working in the Stock Exchange as a 'blue button' at A. J. Bekhore, he established a reputation for dealing with the big players of the fringe banking world. His colleagues nicknamed him "The Animal". [2] [3]

Parnes built up the strategic shareholding in Debenhams for Ronson and Sir Philip Harris during Burton's fiercely contested bid for the department store group. That stake helped win the bid for Sir Ralph Halpern, Burton's chairman, in a cliffhanging finish. The vote went in favour of Burton after the bid had been extended from the 3 pm Friday deadline to the following Sunday in a special dispensation by the Takeover Panel. After working at stockbrokers A.J. Bekhor, Rowe Rudd and McNally, he became a "half commission" man (that is, an introducing broker) with Alexander Laing and Cruickshank. [4] As well as having dealt for various clients, Parnes' relations include the former chief executive of the major British jewellery company Ratners Group Gerald Ratner [5] and the restaurateur and club-owner Richard Caring. [6]

The Guinness Case

Parnes and others had manipulated the Guinness share price to enable it to merge favourably with Distillers. Described as "flamboyant" by The Scotsman , he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years on charges of false accounting and theft, but had his sentence reduced to 21 months on appeal.[ citation needed ]

Parnes' case was that a reasonable man with experience in the City would not at the time have regarded what he did as dishonest. Guinness shares did not reach a price higher than he thought was justified. He did not accept he had any responsibility to make disclosure to the Stock Exchange. He claimed the payments he received were for lawful and valuable services. He also claimed he was not told that the arrangements he made for Guinness plc had not been sanctioned by its board of directors.[ citation needed ]

Appeals by the Guinness four in 1991 and 1995 resulted in their sentences being reduced. In 1995 Michael Heseltine, the then President of the Board of Trade, lifted a government "gagging order" preventing disclosure of evidence in the appeals of defendants in the Guinness case. While this procedure was unjust, the court felt that it did not outweigh the prosecution's arguments.[ citation needed ]

The now deceased Patrick Spens, 3rd Baron Spens, a defendant in the second, Guinness II, trial, who campaigned for compensation after the charges against him were dropped, said: "We have tried for years to get the certificate lifted." He said that the Guinness appeal would make "Matrix Churchill look amateurish. In Matrix Churchill three men did not go to prison; in Guinness I, they did." He insisted that there was nothing wrong with the Guinness deal and says the DTI inspectors did not understand the rules of the takeover "game". Lord Spens said that the difference between winning and losing a takeover bid could easily be an executive's job and he said: "Takeovers are not genteel affairs, as the inspectors would have it. They are very, very serious, life and death businesses. Little has changed in the last 10 years. They are just called different names, the practices that went on in the 1980s."

Personal life

Parnes was married to Denise Ratner, sister of jewellery businessman Gerald Ratner. [7]

As a result of the Guinness case and his 17 months in prison, his marriage broke up, he was expelled from the London Stock Exchange, and left a large home in Hampstead for a small flat in central London. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insider trading</span> Public company stock or securities trading using nonpublic information

Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information are illegal. This is because it is seen as unfair to other investors who do not have access to the information, as the investor with insider information could potentially make larger profits than a typical investor could make. The rules governing insider trading are complex and vary significantly from country to country. The extent of enforcement also varies from one country to another. The definition of insider in one jurisdiction can be broad and may cover not only insiders themselves but also any persons related to them, such as brokers, associates, and even family members. A person who becomes aware of non-public information and trades on that basis may be guilty of a crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stock exchange</span> Organization that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade securities

A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for the issue and redemption of such securities and instruments and capital events including the payment of income and dividends. Securities traded on a stock exchange include stock issued by listed companies, unit trusts, derivatives, pooled investment products and bonds. Stock exchanges often function as "continuous auction" markets with buyers and sellers consummating transactions via open outcry at a central location such as the floor of the exchange or by using an electronic trading platform.

Ernest Walter Saunders is a British former business manager. He became known in the UK as one of the "Guinness Four", a group of businessmen who attempted fraudulently to manipulate the share price of the Guinness company. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but released after 10 months as he was believed to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He subsequently recovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ingram</span> English fraudster (born 1963)

Charles William Ingram is an English fraudster, novelist and former British Army major who gained notoriety for his appearance on the ITV television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In episodes recorded in September 2001, Ingram correctly answered fifteen questions to win the show's maximum prize of £1 million, becoming the third recorded contestant to ever do so. However, he was denied the winnings due to suspicion of cheating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FTSE 100 Index</span> Share index of the London Stock Exchange

The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie", is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalisation. The index is maintained by the FTSE Group, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Ratner</span> British businessman

Gerald Irving Ratner is a British businessman. He was formerly chief executive officer of the major British jewellery company Ratners Group. He achieved notoriety after making a speech in which he jokingly denigrated two of the company's products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdelbaset al-Megrahi</span> Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing (1952–2012)

Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Libya, and an alleged Libyan intelligence officer. On 31 January 2001, Megrahi was convicted, by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, of 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was found not guilty and was acquitted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Levine</span>

Dennis B. Levine is a corporate consultant and former investment banker. He was a managing director at the investment banking firm Drexel Burnham Lambert in the 1980s. Levine was one of the first of several high-profile insider trading defendants in the Wall Street insider trading investigations of the mid-1980s. As a result of the investigation by and subsequent proceedings, Levine pleaded guilty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission</span>

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, established by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signet Jewelers</span> Jewelry retailer

Signet Jewelers Ltd. is, as of 2015, the world's largest retailer of diamond jewellery. The company is domiciled in Bermuda and headquartered in Akron, Ohio, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The group operates in the middle market jewellery segment and has number one positions in the US, Canada and UK speciality jewellery markets. Certain brands operate in the upper middle market. Signet Jewelers owns and operates the companies Blue Nile, Zales, Kay Jewelers, Jared, JamesAllen.com, and others.

Simon Gautier Hannes was an Australian senior executive of Macquarie Bank convicted of insider trading over call options bought prior to the takeover of TNT by the Dutch postal service (KPN) in 1996.

Gerald Maurice Ronson, CBE is a British business tycoon and convicted criminal. He became known in the UK as one of the 'Guinness Four' for his part in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s as a result of which he was convicted and imprisoned.

Isidore Jack Lyons was a British financier.

The Guinness share-trading fraud was a major business scandal of the 1980s. It involved the manipulation of the London stock market to inflate the price of Guinness shares to thereby assist Guinness's £4 billion takeover bid for the Scottish drinks company Distillers. Four businessmen were convicted of criminal offences for taking part in the manipulation. The scandal was discovered in testimony given by the US stock trader Ivan Boesky as part of a plea bargain. Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, Jack Lyons and Anthony Parnes, the so-called Guinness four, were charged, paid large fines and, with the exception of Lyons, who was suffering from ill health, served prison sentences. The case was brought by the Serious Fraud Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biffa</span> Waste management company

Biffa plc is a waste management company headquartered in High Wycombe, England. It provides collection, landfill, recycling and special waste services to local authorities and industrial and commercial clients in the United Kingdom. As of 2017, it was the UK's second-largest waste-management company.

United Drapery Stores, or UDS, was a British retail group that dominated the British high street from the 1950s to the early 1980s.

Stephen Leonard Hinchliffe is an English businessman from Sheffield who was the founder of the former retail empire Facia group, which had up to 850 stores before it collapsed in 1996. He has been a director of 60 companies. He was jailed in 2001 and 2003 for bribery and fraud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian corporate law</span>

Canadian corporate law concerns the operation of corporations in Canada, which can be established under either federal or provincial authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Bilzerian</span> American businessman

Paul Alec Bilzerian is an American businessman and corporate takeover specialist.

Sir Denis Robert Maurice Henry, PC was an English barrister, Queen's Counsel and judge, rising to Lord Justice of Appeal. He presided over the Guinness share-trading fraud trial, a major British business scandal of the 1980s.

References

  1. ↑ "How they live now". Evening Standard. 21 December 2001. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  2. ↑ "PARNES FROM OFFICE BOY TO 'ANIMAL'". The Scotsman. December 2001. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012.
  3. ↑ Cliff Feltham (3 May 2006). "Twenty Years After Guinness Parnes Junior Brokers Far East Deal". Citywire.
  4. ↑ "HBOS boss spins his way out of trouble – for now". London Evening Standard. 11 April 2012.
  5. ↑ Jeremy Warner (23 October 2011). "Jeremy Warner's Outlook: By teaming up with Centrica, EDF tries to look more British in bid for nuclear assets" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022.
  6. ↑ Victoria Bates (23 December 2009). "A HEFTY DOSE OF CRUNCH-BUSTING CHRISTMAS CHEER HITS THE CITY". cityam.com.
  7. ↑ "Life and high-flying times of four partners in crime". The Scotsman. 22 December 2001. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  8. ↑ Braid, Mary (20 September 1994). "Adjusting to life after residence at the Savoy: Mary Braid reports on the mixed fortunes of the four lead characters in the Guinness share-rigging case since they were convicted" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.