Emil Savundra
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Emil Savundra (1923 – 1976) was a convicted fraudster and swindler, born Michael Marion Emil Anacletus Pierre Savundranayagam in Sri Lanka. Savundra, who gave himself the title "Doctor", committed financial frauds in several countries.
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[edit] Early career
Savundra committed several shipping frauds and dubious arms deals in his native Ceylon. In 1954 he came to the attention of the authorities, accused of swindling the Kredietbank of Antwerp over a non-existent cargo of rice. He served a sentence in prison. In 1958, he resurfaced to pose as an economic saviour in Ghana. He was deported from there, but he continued his career of malfeasance with a swindle of the Costa Rican government in 1959, based on coffee beans. His activities allegedly also affected Goa and China
[edit] Fire, Auto and Marine
By the early Sixties, Savundra appeared in the United Kingdom. Here he perpetrated the massive fraud for which he is most remembered. In 1963, he formed the Fire, Auto & Marine Insurance Company (FAM). The background to this was the increasing ownership of cars in the UK. This paralleled the development by the Government of the road network. Motorways were built and many trunk roads were rebuilt as dual carriageways at that time. It was compulsory for all drivers to purchase minimum insurance cover, but many of the new motorists were finding the cost particularly high. Before computers were in widespread use, it was difficult for an ordinary person to make competitive price comparisons between rival insurers. Savundra exploited this by advertising motor insurance at very attractive rates.
It became evident that Savundra was taking clients' money in return for useless insurance contracts which he had no intention of honouring. Before the FAM collapse, he was enjoying a lavish high-profile lifestyle; he was an alleged client of prostitute Christine Keeler who featured in the 1963 Profumo scandal. His antics were commented on in Private Eye magazine: he was one of the first dishonest businessmen to receive the attention of the magazine. Savundra was also one of the first crooks to exploit UK libel law to prevent publications like Private Eye from publishing damning allegations about him and his business practices. This gave him a false sense of security or "indispensable protection". He felt it made him safe from investigation when he forged government securities worth £540,000 and invented £870,000 of 'blue-chip' shares.
However, the belief that FAM was deliberately failing to meet its obligations to its customers grew. The Sunday Times Insight team investigated Savundra's affairs and reported that his "reserves" in stocks worth nearly a million were forgeries. Commentators in his defence asserted that Savundra was taking on high-risk clients and was not sufficiently sophisticated to realise that he should have been allocating far more resources to deal with the inevitable claims that these clients would generate. This was to overlook his track record in fraudulent trading. Savundra was transferring FAM assets to a bank in Liechtenstein, an "offshore" institution beyond British control, allowing much greater secrecy. Savundra sold his FAM shares in 1966. The company, led by Stuart de Quincey Walker, collapsed within days, leaving its clients uninsured in fact as well as in practice. It is estimated that 400,000 motorists were affected.
[edit] “Trial by television”
The fraudulent nature of Savundra's business affairs burst into public prominence in 1967 as a result of a television interview by David Frost. Frost had been the star of That Was The Week That Was and its successor Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, weekly shows on BBC television which mixed cutting-edge satire with lighter material. Frost also fronted a comedy sketch programme The Frost Report for the BBC, but he had signed for Rediffusion, the ITV weekday contractor in London, to produce a "heavier" interview-based show The Frost Programme. This was a ground-breaking British chat show, and Savundra was its first notable "victim".
The recording of this programme is a rare survivor from an era when television programming, particularly "live", was seldom recorded, and tapes were routinely re-used (or "wiped"). Savundra appeared to start out smug and self-satisfied, confident in his ability to defend his conduct, and anticipating no problems in handling Frost's questioning. He described his clients as "peasants", and claimed to have "no moral responsibility" for what had happened. However, his sneering attitude toward the victims of his malicious fraudulent activities who were present in the audience clearly roused Frost into action. Frost was well-known as a "son of the Manse" (his father was a non-conformist Minister) with a strong sense of ethics and morality, as well as being highly intelligent and quick-witted, he sensed the anger and went on the attack. He confronted Savundra with his despicable conduct, and left him in no doubt that he (Frost) and the studio audience (supposedly numbering in their midst one Eric Idle, later to find fame with Monty Python) regarded Savundra as utterly reprehensible. The programme ended with shouts from the audience of "Well done Frostie!", and the sight of a visibly shaken Savundra. Such was Frost's anger that he finished the show without its usual sign-off and spoke to the wrong camera before walking off, leaving Savundra looking puzzled as to what he was to do next.
The episode was quickly dubbed "trial by television", and caused serious misgivings in the corridors of power in the television world and beyond. It was felt that the television treatment of Savundra by Frost severely compromised Savundra's right to a fair trial in a British criminal court. It caused the ITV senior management to be ultra-cautious in future. The most notable example of this caution occurred over a World in Action programme about the crooked architect John Poulson and the Government officials with whom he conducted business. However, the programme cemented the reputation of Frost as a hard-hitting interviewer, both in the UK and the USA, culminating in his famous interrogation of a post-Watergate Richard Nixon in 1977. It also opened the door to a more aggressive style of television interview with politicians, as typified by Robin Day and continuing with Jeremy Paxman.
[edit] Later career
Savundra was arrested not long after his appearance on The Frost Programme. He was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment in 1968. He maintained a disdainful arrogance and lack of contrition throughout, which cut little ice with judge and jury or the Prison Service. Normally, "white-collar" criminals such as fraudsters can expect to serve their time in relatively easier conditions, or even at an open prison. Savundra's attitude condemned him to a harsher prison regimen, which he attributed to what is now referred to as "institutional racism" on the part of the authorities.
Savundra was released from prison in 1974. The harsh conditions he experienced in prison doubtless contributed to his death in 1976.
Savundra donated a contribution to the construction and establishment of a Catholic Nuns' Convent in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
[edit] External source
- Connell, Jon (1978). Fraud: The Amazing Career of Doctor Savundra. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-22601-3.
