Last July Powerhouse Energy appointed Tim Yeo as their executive chairman, despite all the baggage he brought with him. It now emerges Tim is mysteriously stepping down with immediate effect “for personal reasons”. Yeo managed to extract £35,000 on the way out and shares fell 11%. No doubt another pocket-lining green opportunity will present itself to Tim before too long…
It’s curious timing, to say the least. Just last month the former Tory MP made news after losing another court battle for making “knowingly false” claims, with the judge slamming him as “dishonest”. Was his resignation from Powerhouse Energy really for “personal reasons”? Co-conspirators can make up their own minds…
Ex-Tory Minister (and notorious cad) Tim Yeo is once again on the wrong end of a judge’s wrath, after being found guilty of deliberately misusing his “fiduciary powers” as chair of TMO Renewables and repeatedly offering misleading evidence in court. As if being called “dishonest” by one judge wasn’t enough…
Yeo, along with several other company directors, was accused of “a dishonest strategy for maintaining control of the Board” after a majority shareholder moved to replace the board’s membership; a strategy which included “mislead[ing] existing shareholders” into thinking the company had just received a substantial cash investment, when in reality the new friendly shareholders had not invested a penny. Looks like another costly mistake for Yeo; representing yourself in court because you can’t afford a lawyer never bodes well…
As you’d expect, the full judgement pulls no punches. Highlights from the judge’s conclusions include:
“I reject Mr Yeo’s evidence, which seemed to me to protest too much.
He frequently resorted to very long recitations of his case which avoided giving a straightforward answer to the question he had been asked and appeared designed to take the discussion in a different direction […] this propensity on the part of Mr Yeo to “speechify” tended to give his evidence a contrived, evasive and rather self-serving quality.
In all the circumstances I find that the issue of shares to VSA was in breach of the Director Defendants’ fiduciary powers in that it was made for an improper purpose; I also find that each of the Director Defendants was motivated by this improper purpose.”
Yeo also issued a counterclaim to refute the judgements – no luck. The claim was dismissed.
There is widespread speculation that Tim Yeo faces bankruptcy, which would see him disqualified from being a director. This follows his costly and unsuccessful claim for defamation against The Times. Looks like the chancer’s spivvy dealings will, at the age of 76, finally finish him off…
Hat-tip: ShareProphets
Westminster is lucky to be rid of him, so what is slimy former Tory MP Tim Yeo up to these days? The not very much-missed Yeo, who was described by a judge in 2015 as “unreliable”, “not honest”, “dishonest”, “untruthful”, “untrue” and “unworthy of belief”, is now working as a “senior consultant” at a merchant bank called Turquoise. According to his bio on their website:
“Tim was a Member of Parliament for 32 years during which time he occupied a variety of senior energy and environment roles including Secretary of State for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs”
Except Tim Yeo was never Secretary of State for the Environment. He was Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, and a junior Environment minister, never Environment Secretary. What was it the judge said? Ah yes, “unworthy of belief”…
Our old friend Tim Yeo is back in the courts again fresh from his huge loss to the Sunday Times over a “cash-for-advocacy” story. Shareholders of TMO Renewable, a collapsed green energy business chaired by Yeo, have served him with letters before action for misrepresentation and negligence. Lawyers see possible claims for breach of duty and “misfeasance”, which covers intentionally unlawful behaviour.
Yeo was paid £38,000 as chairman between March and October 2013, according to parliament’s register of members’ interests. Tim Yeo had long abused his parliamentary position to advance his green financial interests before long suffering local Tories had enough and deselected him. Good to see he is still controversial even in retirement…
More trouble for Tim Yeo after he lost his libel action against the Sunday Times: now the police are looking into whether he committed perjury. Worth remembering the judge described his evidence as “implausible”, “unreliable”, “not honest”, “dishonest”, “untruthful”, “untrue” and “unworthy of belief”. Perjury carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison…
This part of the judgement amused Guido:
- One strand in the concerns that had been publicly expressed was whether Parliamentarians’ performance of their public duties might be influenced by their private outside interests. Mr Yeo’s name featured in some publications on this topic.
(1) On 10 and 11 December 2012 the political blog “Guido Fawkes” carried items headed “Yeo’s Lump for Dump” and “Why is Tim Yeo Backing Fracking?”, suggesting that Mr Yeo had conflicts between his private business interests and his role as ECCSC Chair.(2) 23 December 2012 an article by Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph questioned whether it was right for Mr Yeo to chair both the ECCSC and TMO. Mr Booker implied a conflict of interest, given that the ECCSC saw one of its chief roles as encouraging spending on renewables, and Mr Yeo had “financial interests in several firms that might be among the beneficiaries of such spending”.
(3) On 30 December 2013 Guido Fawkes carried an item headed “Review of 2012: Taxi for Tim Yeo”, identifying him as “a serious contender for villain of the year”. The item suggested conflicts between his Committee chairmanship and his role with Eco City Vehicles, and that he had actively lobbied for policies favourable to TMO.
(4) On 13 January 2013 the Mail on Sunday ran a report alleging that “A former Cabinet Minister [Lord Deben] who plays a key role in deciding the future size of energy bills is chairman of a company that stands to benefit directly from his Government work”. The article attributed to Graham Stringer MP the observation that “the whole field of energy and environmental policy seemed to be dominated by individuals who had commercial interests – for example, Tim Yeo, the Select Committee Chairman, is a director of several renewable energy firms”. Declaring interests was not enough, suggested Mr Stringer.
The origins of the articles
- On 10 February 2013 Jonathan Leake of The Sunday Times sent Mr Calvert and Ms Blake an email headed “Tim Yeo is looking quite villainous” incorporating “cuttings” of the Guido Fawkes reports, and other online media reports relating to Mr Yeo, including the Sunday Telegraph and Mail On Sunday articles, that I have quoted above. Mr Leake was passing this information on to the Insight team by way of a suggestion for a possible investigation.
It seems he would have got away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky bloggers…
