Deal to Merge PNC and Riggs Comes Apart

[DulceDecorum]

Published: February 8, 2005
A proposed merger of the Riggs National Corporation and the PNC Financial Services Group collapsed yesterday amid a disagreement over the price PNC was willing to pay and a money-laundering investigation involving transactions at Riggs's banking subsidiary.

Riggs responded to the failed negotiations by suing PNC, charging that it had no grounds for ending the talks and asking a judge in Washington to compel PNC either to complete the merger or to pay Riggs for damages incurred as a result of the unsuccessful transaction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/business/08bank.html

PNC buyout of Riggs falls apart
Firm lowers bid after bank pleads guilty to charges
February 8, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Riggs National Corp.'s $766 million merger with PNC Financial Services Group Inc. fell apart over the weekend: The two sides could not agree on a new, lower price for Riggs. Riggs sued PNC yesterday in an effort to enforce the deal.
<snip>
The merger agreement with Pittsburgh-based PNC allows PNC to back out without penalty if a material change occurs in Riggs's regulatory or financial position. But Riggs' suit seeks to force PNC to either honor the original agreement or pay damages to Riggs.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/02/08/pnc_buyout_of_riggs_falls_apart/

[merwin]

1. No shit? This is big news.

[DulceDecorum]

2. It reminds me of the way Enron went into meltdown.

What will become of Unka Jonathan?
Will he be forced to walk on the same golf course as Kenny Boy?

[leveymg]

4. Does Club Danbury have links? Sign 'em up. n/t

[Pallas180]

3. Isn't one of the Bush brothers head of Riggs? & Schwab's bank

is PNC...glad I', closing my account with them and getting out of their bank...before the jesse james brothers and pappy do another silverado. heh

[hedda_foil]

5. It's GHWB's brother Jonathan

He's head of a division of Riggs.

[susu369]

6. From February 2nd story: "We have to sell this bank."

emad posted this link last week:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55823-2005Feb1.html


"We have to sell this bank," one Riggs insider said.

==
What a story!

[emad]

7. Takeover bid for Riggs Bank fails

Marcy Gordon, Associated Press
February 8, 2005 PNC0208



WASHINGTON, D.C. -- PNC Financial Services Group Incorporated's offer to buy embattled Riggs Bank collapsed in bitterness Monday as Riggs' parent sued the regional bank for damages after PNC slashed its takeover bid by about 20 percent. The developments followed Riggs' recent guilty plea to violations of a law to prevent money laundering.

Uncertainty regarding those and other legal issues and declining deposits at Riggs branches rendered the bank less valuable for Pittsburgh-based PNC, analysts said.

PNC had agreed in July to pay $24.25 in cash and stock -- a total of about $779 million -- for Riggs, an old-line Washington, D.C., institution that had a near-monopoly on business with the capital's diplomatic community.

But Riggs pleaded guilty on Jan. 27 to failing to report suspicious transactions in the accounts of foreigners, including former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The bank agreed to pay a $16 million fine on top of a record $25 million civil fine levied on the bank by a Treasury Department agency last May.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5228026.html

EDIT: even after flogging off the family silver - the Riggs Bank & Trust subsidiary in Jersey, Channel Islands, Riggs ain't gotta prayer.

Best bet is that the PNC deal will flop altogether.

Where is the esteemed Elliot Spitzer???? This could be his BCCI.

[emad]

8. DU Jan.18th: I said PNC would slash the price by $100million.

Today's news shows it's more like $150 million.

Expecting another price drop by the end of the week when more Thatcher chicanery in the Equatorial Guinea coup plot comes to light and Riggs' lengthy fraudulent history emerges?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1191391#1191503

[seemslikeadream]

9. Riggs' constant failure to comply with banking oversight laws

Published in: The Wall Street Journal September 13, 2004


WASHINGTON -- A lawsuit was filed on behalf of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and their families against Riggs Bank for allegedly contributing to the disaster through negligence, as both the owner and the leaseholder of the World Trade Center site took aim at Saudi Arabia's leaders, its banks and its charities in their own legal complaints.

...

The boldest filing was the suit, which seeks class-action status, against Riggs National Corp. and its banking unit. "Riggs' constant failure to comply with banking oversight laws resulted in funds being forwarded from high risk Saudi Embassy accounts at Riggs Bank to at least two September 11 hijackers," the suit, drafted by the torts firm Motley Rice of Mount Pleasant, S.C., alleges.

Both Riggs and the Saudis had no comment.


Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109503491663715943,00.html?mod=us_business_whats_news

[bikebloke]

10. They said it was fixed.

When I closed my account with Riggs, citing the corruption, they said the problem was fixed. Sure, matey. I moved to another bank that doesn't appear to be skimming money out of my checking account. I lost around fifty dollars from Riggs. And I'm one who watches every penny.

[emad]

11. I smell a class action coming up against Riggs. Like the one

against BCCI in London.

So hang in there, bikebloke, we'll get you your $50 back.....

[Nite Owl]

12. This article was up

on DU last week:

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/533859.html


Bank Leumi's arm in Britain is to buy Riggs Bank & Trust (Channel Islands), registered in Jersey, for $25 million. Riggs Bank & Trust provides mainly private banking and trust services.

The agreement also covers the acquisition of two other banking operations from the parent company, Riggs Bank, and from affiliated companies. Leumi (UK) will be paying an additional $12 million for these loan and deposits portfolios. All the sums will be adjusted to the date of finalization, which should be in February, according to the terms of agreement.

The deal was approved by both the Bank of Israel and the authorities on Jersey. Bank Leumi (UK) will be acquiring Riggs' $120 million in customer deposits and investments, a credit portfolio of $165 million, and trust sums amounting to $430 million, most of which are in the Channel Islands.

<snip>



Are they selling off divisions? I'm not sure what this means.
This seems like a complicated story that is, of course, being given p. 23 status, buried inside and glanced over.

[emad]

13. Riggs's London man, David Bachetti, was allegedly urging all

his A-list customers last year to take advantage of tax savings in the UK by moving their accounts offshore to Jersey. I presume he meant the Riggs Trust bought by Leumi.

Among the notable clients in the UK are princess Di's ex-stepmother, 75 year old Raine Spencer de Chambrun (whom the Daily Mail ssaid Bachetti was screwing - not just financially - during the Christmas and New Year period), "Prince Charles" and his live-in beard Camilla and Margaret Thatcher, whose charitable foundation has periodically used Riggs in Jersey to pay the odd parking fine....or her son's £165,000 bailbond in December, maybe even his £260,000 court fine in January....

[DulceDecorum]

14. Ahh, Maggie and the Boy Mark!!

What joy to see them again!!

So Mummy banks at Riggs eh?
Then that means that Obiang probably financed the bail for Mark,
seeing as how
Riggs is very accommodating to moving funds around as needed.

Has Riggs surrendered the 700 million dollars in Obiang's account?
I have been looking all over but it looks like Riggs is still holding the loot.
Any updates on that cash?

[emad]

16. Some reports last year that the cash was frozen by "third parties"

with a prior claim on Obiang's liabilities.......

Anyone else smell a trail leading to Ayad Allawi and his bagmen????

[susu369]

15. Little kick for the evening crowd

:kick: