NEWS DESK 9^th NOVEMBER 2000 - MICHAEL WALSH

THE END OF THE PIER?

BRITAIN’S MOST NOTORIOUS TABLOID INVESTIGATED BY FRAUD BUSTERS

Britain’s No.1 fraud busting squad, the Department of Trade and Industry, have mounted an operation to investigate the Daily Mirror’s editor and his staff for illegal share dealing. The notorious tabloid, once infamously owned by Israeli tycoon and grand-thief of pensions Robert Maxwell, is suspected of talking up shares – after the editor and his staff had purchased them.

"THE NAME’S PIER NOT POOR!"

Piers Morgan was initially checked out after he bought £20,000 worth of shares in Viglen, which is headed by Alan Sugar, another tycoon of Hebraic credentials. The Daily Mirror immediately published a bullish (not a misprint!) spin on that company which sent its shares soaring, much to the financial good fortune of Morgan.

Two Mirror journalists, the self-styled ‘City Slickers’ Anil Bhoyrul and Jimmy Hipwell, accompanied the editor in his share-shopping spree. They subsequently gave up-beat reports on Viglen prospects a total of 41 times in the Mirror’s financial pages.

According to the Britain’s most prestigious financial commentators (Financial Mail Oct 29, 2000) ‘Morgan claimed he did not know the story was about to appear and that his purchase was purely coincidence.’ A claim that would have raised even his hapless mother’s eyebrows.

It certainly raised eyebrows among the investigators at the Department of Trade and Industry who ordered more than a dozen of the dodgy newspaper’s ‘journalists’ to appear at their offices to give evidence.

HACKS WITH PROPHETIC POWERS

It appears that the dreadful trio, Piers Morgan, Anil Bhoyrul and Jimmy Hipwell, weren’t the only hacks to have been blessed with prophetic powers; a number of other Mirror staff insiders bought shares in Viglen – again coincidentally just before the spin was placed on the company.

After seven months investigation both Bhoyrul and Hipwell were sacked and the investigative team’s findings handed to the DTI for possible prosecutions.

During the investigation it was revealed that ‘the investigation of Mirror staff’ had spread far wider and now involved far bigger companies than Viglen.’ These companies include drinks giant Allied Domecq whose chairman is Sir. Christopher Hogg. Surprise! surprise! He is married to the Daily Mirror’s Jewish agony aunt Miriam Stoppard.

Although there is no evidence of Piers Morgan personally holding shares in Allied Domecq he is known to have an obsessive interest in that company’s fortunes. He recently intervened to put a gloss on editorial covering the company - at a time when it was struggling to clinch a £2.85 billion deal.

Morgan is also said to hold shares in the Jewish news agency Reuters also chaired by the same Sir Christopher ‘Snorty’ Hogg. Meanwhile, Piers Morgan, editor of Britain’s porn-pushing penny dreadful was ‘not taking calls today.’

One can only wonder if, should things go wrong and he ‘falls off the end of the pier’ in the fashion of his former boss, Robert Maxwell, he too will be placed in the Israeli burial plot next to his equally hapless master as Talmudic horns wail him on his way.