Former Fortis bosses to appear in court

Three former Fortis executives have lost their appeal against being called as witnesses in connection with a damages claim by Fortis investors, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

Former CEO Jean-Paul Votron will now appear in court in Utrecht on Friday. Former supervisory board chairman Maurice Lippens and CFO Gilbert Mittler will be heard on June 8 and June 11.
The three had argued that they did not speak Dutch well enough to follow the proceedings properly and asked to be heard in French in Brussels, the FD says. The court in Arnhem rejected the appeal, saying the three can use the service of intepreters.

Share price
A number of investors are suing Fortis for the share price collapse following the partial take over of ABN Amro.
In March, the financial services regulator AFM announced it had fined the former Fortis group a total €576,000 for market manipulation and failing to publish price-sensitive information during the takeover.
Two fines relate to statements by then Fortis CEO Jean-Paul Votron on June 5, 2008 when he said Fortis’ solvency was ‘on target’ and ‘strong’. A month later, the financial services group announced plans to issue new shares, sell off units and slash its dividend.