HONG KONG, Jan. 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TMT Chairman Nobu Su has written to RBS’ Chief Executive Ross McEwan and RBS former non-executive director John McFarlane (current Chairman of Barclays PLC), requesting an explanation of the now controversial USD 85 million margin call made by the bank in August 2008.

Six years since his first plea for a clarification, Nobu Su is still unclear as to how the exact figure was calculated, commenting on a number of occasions that "USD 85 million as an even number is not a computer algorithm.” 

According to Nobu Su, during the course of 2008, the calculation of margin by RBS was consistently and significantly incorrect, and in the account statements produced by the bank, TMT collateral assets were often valued wildly incorrectly.

Following many years of intense research, the entrepreneur and acclaimed inventor firmly believes that the USD 85 million margin call was related to the infamous AIG bailout rescue of 2008, with TMT shares indirectly insuring the emergency syndication loan by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, or the PDCF (Prime Dealer Credit Facility) accepted by New York FRB to lend over USD 200 billion.

He became further convinced of this following the revelations made by the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke. In his book “The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath”, published in October 2015, Mr. Bernanke focuses on the central bank's role as the lender of last resort, discusses efforts that injected liquidity into the banking system and describes the ongoing structural and regulatory problems that need to be addressed.

Nobu Su comments: “The Financial Crisis was not some kind of unfortunate accident. Having read Mr. Bernanke’s latest book, Hank Paulson’s ‘On the Brink’ and the official Financial Crisis Inquiry report, it is clear and worrying that governments have no mechanism for searching the balance sheets of companies that hold enormous life-or-death power over our societies, and that inconceivably massive financial institutions such as the New York Fed have no real system for auditing themselves.”

“The convenient timing of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley changing their license to ‘bank holding companies’ (commercial banks) on September 23, 2008,  to allow themselves to receive almost USD 40 billion dollars from the New York Fed without due diligence is in violation of official procedures and frankly criminal. The way these two institutions were treated radically differently from others, with lavish rescues and no consequences, demonstrates that something is clearly amiss.” 

“It appears to me that the ‘bending of rules’ was a recurring theme throughout the crisis. Governments allowed Barclays to acquire Lehman for USD 1.75 billion (USD 250 million for the Lehman operations and USD 1.5 billion for the New York Headquarters and two data centres) - an action which resulted in a six year litigation battle on what were and weren't included in the sales of assets while sold part of Lehman to Nomura in Japan to avoid excuse of British FSA (Financial Services Authority) clearance. The acquisition transformed Barclays into the global investment bank that Bob Diamond had longed for. The question is, was this fortunate timing or planned? ”

“Warren Buffet said Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, but my case proves that TMT’s balance sheet, which appears to have been hijacked by RBS, played a key role in the survival of the global banking system in the financial crisis. It was planned to receive unlimited funds from world central banks following quantitative easing policy until today.”  

“In his book, Ben Bernanke confirms that section 13(3) was applied in 1932 only in the largest amount USD 300,000 for typewriter manufacturers. If that is the case, the controversial  '85' number was just picked up one month before the Lehman-AIG week without any ground by policy makers, in order to break the Central Bank constitution.”