TIMESOFINDIA
The billionaire owner of the Topshop
clothing chain on Saturday accused a leading British MP of running a
"kangaroo court" after the tycoon was slammed over the collapse of
department store chain BHS.
Philip Green wrote a letter to Frank Field,
saying that he had led a campaign against him culminating in the
publishing of a report last week branding the high-profile businessman
the "unacceptable face of capitalism".
MPs from the parliamentary committee that prepared the report, chaired by Field, called on former BHS boss Philip Green to address "urgently" the shortfalls in a pension fund of 20,000 former employees.
"I have tried to stay silent in the face of your regular outbursts
and to focus on the important task of working towards a solution for the
BHS pensioners," wrote Green, in a letter cited by the Press
Association.
"But I am not prepared to continue to allow your abuse to go unanswered.
"Even before the parliamentary inquiry started hearing from
witnesses, you turned it into little more than a kangaroo court, with
your constant press campaign barracking and insulting me and my family
and your announcement from day one that the predetermined result of the
inquiry was that I either sign a large cheque or lose my knighthood."
Green bought BHS in 2000 for £200 million (237 million euros, $265 million) and sold it in 2015 for £1 to Dominic Chappell, a former bankrupt businessman with no retail experience.
The 88-year-old company had 163 stores and 74 franchise operations
across 18 countries. Its closing caused the loss of 11,000 jobs.
When it collapsed last month, BHS had debts totalling more than
£1.3 billion, including a £571-million deficit to its pension fund.
Field said of Green: "His reputation as the king of retail lies in
the ruins of BHS. His family took out of BHS... a fortune beyond the
dreams of avarice.
"What kind of man is it who can count his fortune in billions but does not know what decent behaviour is?" he said.
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