Tài chính trong hành động Các mối nguy hiểm của Ngân hàng cho vay bảo đảm Hội đồng An toàn quốc gia của Phòng Victoria của Úc đã có được một bộ trang phục buồn ngủ cho đến khi John Friedrich đã qua. | finance in action The Hazards of Secured Bank Lending The National Safety Council of Australia s Victoria Division had been a sleepy outfit until John Friedrich took over. Under its new management NSC members trained like commandos and were prepared to go anywhere and do anything. They saved people from drowning they fought fires found lost bushwalkers and went down mines. Their lavish equipment included 22 helicopters 8 aircraft and a mini-submarine. Soon the NSC began selling its services internationally. Unfortunately the NSC s paramilitary outfit cost millions of dollars to run- far more than it earned in revenue. Friedrich bridged the gap by borrowing A236 million of debt. The banks were happy to lend because the NSC s debt appeared well secured. At one point the company showed A107 million of receivables that is money owed by its customers which it pledged as security for bank loans. Later checks revealed that many of these customers did not owe the NSC a cent. In other cases banks took comfort in the fact that their loans were secured by containers of valuable rescue gear. There were more than 100 containers stacked around the NSC s main base. Only a handful contained any equipment but these were the ones that the bankers saw when they came to check that their loans were safe. Sometimes a suspicious banker would ask to inspect a particular container. Friedrich would then explain that it was away on exercise fly the banker across the country in a light plane and point to a container well out in the bush. The container would of course be empty but the banker had no way to know that. Six years after Friedrich was appointed CEO his massive fraud was uncovered. But a few days before a warrant could be issued Friedrich disappeared. Although he was eventually caught and arrested he shot himself before he could come to trial. Investigations revealed that Friedrich was operating under an assumed name having fled from his native Germany where he was wanted by the .
