NW pension fund hires Cherie Blair to sue RBS

A North West pension fund has hired Cherie Blair to sue the Royal Bank of Scotland and its former boss Sir Fred Goodwin in the US courts for hundreds of millions of pounds.

Merseyside council pension fund has joined forces with its North Yorkshire counterpart to claim compensation for the “massive losses” they have suffered following the near collapse and subsequent government bailout of RBS.

According to a report, they claim that Sir Fred, now dubbed “the worst banker in history” falsely reassured investors that the bank was in “good health” despite that fact it was facing insolvency because of massive toxic debts.

The lawsuit  names the entire board including Sir Tom McKillop as defendants and accuses Sir Fred of “hubris” for its aggressive lending strategy.

The two pension funds, which have a combined value of £4m, are part of a class law suit that is open to all European and US shareholders in RBS. So far the funds have been joined by a Dutch metal workers scheme.

Mrs Blair, who works under her professional name of Ms Booth QC, said she would coordinate with other RBS investors to secure justice for as wide a pool of affected investors as possible, adding: “It’s also about the potential to protect investors in the future by significantly raising the standards for good governance in major UK companies.”

The American law suit is possible because of the amount of business RBS conducted in the Sates, and the report said Ms Booth is working with Californian law firm Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, which secured $7bn in compensation for Enron investors.

Ms Booth said: “Most of the problems that have brought the bank to its knees have originated and have been concealed in its US operations.”