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Members of the media outside the home of former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

 

The home of former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive, Fred Goodwin, was attacked early this morning by an anonymous group threatening more attacks on "criminal bank bosses." Vandals smashed three windows of his home and one window of a car parked in the driveway. The Guardian reports:

Around 5am, emails arrived at the offices of the Edinburgh Evening News, Press Association and other media outlets saying that Goodwin's house "was attacked this morning" and giving the name of the street where he lives.

The email, sent from the address bankbossesarecriminals@mail.com, said: "We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money, and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless. This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning."

Goodwin has been at the center of national outrage for receiving a pension worth nearly a million dollars after his bank was propped with over 30 billion in government aid.

Earlier this week, listener Dan G. sent us an indicator about Goodwin. Read his letter after the jump.

Dan G. writes:

I have another Planet Money indicator: 30,000, amount in Pounds Sterling (~44,000 USD) that the London Evening Standard would pay for a paparazzi snap of disgraced head of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Fred Goodwin "enjoying himself".
"He's currently worth more than Britney, maybe hovering around the Brad and Angelina with kids price," according to the picture editor, reported in the Guardian.
Briefly, and to simplify enormously, Sir Fred Goodwin steered the venerable bank into bankruptcy, got a government bail out and resigned with a pension worth 700,000 pounds a year (~1mUSD). When they realized they'd been hoodwinked, MPs asked him to return it, which he refused to do (he had already accepted a previous reduction to his package).
It was reported last week that he got a ??1.8m tax break on top of his ??16.9m. This has provoked huge national outrage in the UK, had MPs calling for him to be judged by the "court of national opinion" and vandals have thrown bricks at his house and top-of-the range Mercedes.

categories: Europe's Financial Crisis

1:35 - March 26, 2009

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