ARE PLONKERS ON WILD GOOSE CHASE?
Having described the Takeover Panel as ‘plonkers’, Ken Bates has dismissed an investigation by the Financial Services Authory (FSA) as a ‘wild goose chase’. However, the investigation appears to have been sparked off in part by a FBI investigation into former Chelsea director Stanley Tollman who is a fugitive in the United States in relation to multi-million fraud charges. The FSA took the unusual step of giving maximum publicity to its investigations before speaking to the company or its advisers. The regulator is understood to be interested in Swan Management Services, a Guernsey-based shareholder and the fate of its 20 per cent stake in Chelsea Village. The FSA said its inquiry followed ‘the receipt of information from a number of sources suggesting that the publicly disclosed shareholdings of certain parties may have been inaccurate. … The FSA is concerned that, as a consequence, the market may have been misled as to the true ownership of Chelsea Village.’ There has been speculat
