A former Royal Bank of Scotland manager has admitted taking more than £600,000 in bribes in exchange for favorable treatment of business customers trapped inside the bank’s discredited Global Restructuring Group (GRG), according to The Times.
Stuart Holloway, a former manager in the division, pleaded guilty to two bribery charges at Edinburgh sheriff court after prosecutors said he extorted money from customers between 2012 and 2016 while based at RBS’s office in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, the news outlet said. In exchange for the money, Holloway offered struggling customers relief from debts, protection from the withdrawal of loan facilities, or help moving their accounts out of GRG and to another bank.
He also used threats to solicit funds. In one case, prosecutors said Holloway told a client that unless a large sum was paid, the account would be “managed by others,” implying the business could be lost. The customer later paid £366,100 in order to leave GRG, The Times said.
In another case, prosecutors said Holloway extorted £154,447 and demanded use of a golf club membership from a customer who feared losing his business. Prosecutors said he had placed customers in a state of “alarm and apprehension” and made them fear for their livelihoods, according to the newspaper.
The case revives scrutiny of RBS’s Global Restructuring Group, a unit presented as a turnaround division for struggling companies but long accused of harming the businesses it was supposed to help. The newspaper said Holloway’s conduct took place while GRG was already under heavy scrutiny from regulators, politicians, and the media over claims of aggressive treatment of corporate customers.
Holloway joined the bank in 2005 and moved to GRG in 2010, according to the report. He was suspended in 2016 and left the bank with a voluntary redundancy package in May of that year. The bank was alerted to the bribery allegations by a customer the following year, and five months later it referred the matter to Police Scotland.
Read more at The Times