P.M. BRIEFING : British Firms Accused of Fraud
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LONDON — Police today charged 10 individuals and their employers, the investment firms Natwest and UBS Phillips and Drew, in connection with irregularities in a 1987 sale of $1.3-billion worth of Blue Arrow PLC stock.
The announcement followed the arrest and release earlier in the day of an unspecified number of individuals. The 10 defendants were charged with conspiracy to defraud and are scheduled to appear before City of London Magistrates Court on Friday, police said.
A Natwest division, County Natwest, was adviser for the British employment agency Blue Arrow in its 1987 bid for Manpower Inc., a much larger U.S. employment company.
When a $1.3-billion stock sale to finance the bid flopped, County Natwest allegedly obscured how much of the stock was left in the investment firms’ hands.
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