to not understand how Philip Green and his wife live with themselves?

[MaMaLa321]

Tina Green received millions from Arcadia, as did Philip Green. Now the company has gone down, with a big hole in the pension pot. How do they live with themselves?

It's very unprepossessing to attempt to drag such a cover over Mr Green, wombat. You've had to raise anti semitism in order to accuse posters of it. Very poor. You should be ashamed.

I’m really not ashamed, and I’ve no interest in defending Green’s actions. The posters who should be ashamed are those calling for retrospective changes to the law so that somebody they don’t like can be singled out and punished. Not a treatment they would like themselves, I suspect.

Unfortunately there are a lot of ill founded statements made which are not evidenced. I'm not aware of any money being extracted from Arcadia apart from the whooping dividend in 2005. Green did what a lot of others (ie investment companies) that effectively gear (borrow lots of money) the company, do sale and leaseback to extract value but basically knacker the company for any downturn. Green is an utterly unsavoury character but what he has done for Arcadia is not unlawful ...just more more high profile as was done by a private individual and not a company (I also hope it isn't highlighted because he is Jewish as that's really distasteful).

The issue with the pension scheme for Arcadia is totally different to that of BHS where what he clearly tried to do was avoid the pension liabilities although he could have stood on and refused and wouldn't have been much could be done

In that case, I apologise wombat. Having a very tetchy day and I should have stayed in bed.

@Iamthewombat

After all he paid his wife 2 billion in May and transfered stuff to her because they knew it would all go pear shaped

What’s your source for this, please?

Arcadia paid a £1.3 Billion dividend to Taveta investments in 2005 - fifteen years ago - of which Tina Green received £1.2 Billion. I’ve seen nothing to suggest a separate transfer of £2 Billion from the Arcadia business to Tina Green or any of the companies of which she is a shareholder.

I’m not here to defend the Greens, by they way. Philip Green is big enough and ugly enough to defend himself and is, by all accounts, horrible. However, isn’t there something a bit creepy about throwing ill-informed and untrue accusations at somebody we’ve designated as public enemy number one (he STOLE from the Arcadia pension scheme! He STOLE from the BHS pension scheme and all! He ripped £2 Billion from Arcadia in May 2020 and gave it to his wife!) and, worse, expecting laws to be changed retrospectively to ‘get’ that person so that we can all feel that what we consider justice has been done?

You do get that sale and leaseback transactions, and payment of dividends to offshore companies, go on all the time, don’t you? Irrespective of what you think about the ethics of such transactions, they happen. How come we haven’t got a mob calling for special punishment for partners in the private equity firms that bought Debenhams in 2003 and left it on life support?

Can you see that there is something uncomfortable about making a Jewish businessman the scapegoat for all the corporate ills of Britain? It’s rather reminiscent of what happened in another country ninety years ago.

I absolutely concur with this.

I am a Jew, and the way Philip Green does business and the ensuing fall out has always made me feel really uncomfortable because he embodies so many of the usual tropes antisemites like to slur us with. I was at BHS head office when he bought it, and unctuous is the word I would use to describe him. I jumped ship a month later as did many of my department.

Green has never been the retail guru that some portray him as, and after running BHS into the ground, and then selling it off for £1, it was only a matter of time before Arcadia would go the same way. Green wasn't interested in the way retail is changing, he did not invest in online in the way ASOS, Zara and BooHoo did. He'd taken all the money he could out of the business when he could, so there was never any reason for him to invest in its future.

I just hope all the staff are looked after in the fall out.

@StellaRockafella I've worked for him too, completely agree with you.

What's being jewish got to do with anything?
The man is a grasping venal pig who stole from peoples pensions and forced female employees to sign NDAs to cover up his disgusting sexist harassment of them. I couldn't care less what race or religion he is. Why bring that up?

As a Jew, I am mentioning it because his behaviour does bolster what so many antisemtites like to tar us Jews with. Indeed, you yourself use the term 'grasping' a word that is often used in conjunction with Jews.

And, to quote @Iamthewombat again: 'Can you see that there is something uncomfortable about making a Jewish businessman the scapegoat for all the corporate ills of Britain? It’s rather reminiscent of what happened in another country ninety years ago.'

And this is true, he is being made a scapegoat about not just Topshop's decline, but the entire high street's decline.

@KaptainKaveman

What's being jewish got to do with anything? The man is a grasping venal pig who stole from peoples pensions and forced female employees to sign NDAs to cover up his disgusting sexist harassment of them. I couldn't care less what race or religion he is. Why bring that up?

This. I bet his people are grasping at any straw they can find to make this go away. He can't. He's a bad man and everyone can see it. Time's up, Phil.

Circusoflove I agree, we know the world is full of suffering but we still crack on with our lives.

Nothing to do with PG but I know many who have done extremely well but also give a shit load to charity. What’s wrong with that?

@StellaRockafella

As a Jew, I am mentioning it because his behaviour does bolster what so many antisemtites like to tar us Jews with. Indeed, you yourself use the term 'grasping' a word that is often used in conjunction with Jews.

And, to quote @Iamthewombat again: 'Can you see that there is something uncomfortable about making a Jewish businessman the scapegoat for all the corporate ills of Britain? It’s rather reminiscent of what happened in another country ninety years ago.'

And this is true, he is being made a scapegoat about not just Topshop's decline, but the entire high street's decline.

I'm sorry but your claims are just ridiculous. The term 'grasping' is not an exclusively Jewish word. It seems as though you are defending a man who has done appalling things to his employees simply because of his race/religion. And equating it with the Jewish witch hunts of the 1930s is , frankly, an insult to those who were persecuted. Shame on you.

The man is a crook, pure and simple.

The people at the top literally don't give a care about the people doing the jobs, they only care about profit and loss

Great job here

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/photographer-reveals-how-he-got-revenge-on-philip-green-after-unpleasant-and-rude-shoot/04/12/?fbclid=IwAR1MhjRlUeRO887HUoU68jUVDb_RPpT2KNY0Q1ow2I7S_NHHPVB9TSDM1VY

And in the comments-

Philip Green once sponsored a charity event I was organising at a school. He donated £5k and sent a couple of staff members on the day to help with the event. We raised £20k, which was great, but then (after the publicity was over) he invoiced us for the staff he’d sent along which came to almost double the amount he’d donated.

I dont think anybody has mentioned the fact (most people dont even know) that hes jewish except the JC. Seemingly they are the only ones keen to make it an issue (except Stella).

Yes clearly in her opinion it makes everything perfectly ok

@user1471565182, that's awful. I wouldn't have settled the invoice, let them take it to court and told a tabloid or two. He'd have scuttled off over the 'accounting error'. Outrageous.

Just read his daughter has a child with Jeremy Meeks- that scumbag who was in the crips and had his mug shot posted on facebook when he was arrested to much fawning. Supposedly when he got out of prison he went straight into modelling contracts. What is wrong with people?