Well, OK, maybe not actually lend him any money but:
The Indian-British businessman Sanjeev Gupta has described how companies within his steel conglomerate used stamps and digital images of his signature to certify documents because it was “simply not physically possible” for him to attend to the business personally and that the practice meant his signature was on documents he “had not personally reviewed or ever seen”.
Gupta’s legal representatives have made the statement in a defence document submitted as part of a $400 million dispute between Greensill, the collapsed financial firm, and Zurich, its insurer.
Big complicated business, of course he didn;t sign every doc, some of them were just stamped, he’d never even seen them.
The credit tho’ – I’m amazed he’s still going.
There is a legal presumption that the owner of a dog is responsible for the deeds of that dog, but not of a cat. So Gupta is using the Cat Defence.
Isn’t diversity wonderful!
Back when I was paid with a payslip (remeber them?) the cheque was computer printed with the Chief Cashier’s signiture stamped onto the signiture line. I don’t think anybody would expect him to spend every Friday personally signing 25,000 cheques.
Non Est Factum is a very old defence, but consequentially it’s a tricky one to be successful.
Kin ell, does this mean that every £5, 10 & 20 note in circulation with a signature below the promise to pay the bearer upon demand isn’t genuine?
The promise to pay the bearer certainly isn’t genuine
BiS: It probably is genuine, but the promise is just to pay the bearer other pieces of paper.
It’s certainly not to pay out in gold or silver.
The problem with the “I didn’t see it” defense is, What does his signature actually mean?
Generally if you sign something you’re responsible for it. Certainly if I sign my tax form, but it’s “wrong” (won’t go into who determines that here), the government won’t accept the defense that my accountant used a rubber stamp. I’m still on the hook for the taxes.
In every organisation I’ve worked for that uses digital (scanned) signatures, the person whose scrawl it is makes damn sure that only trusted individuals have access to it, and checks any letter it is applied to before it is sent out.
He would have been quite happy to walk off with the profits had the business been successful so as far as I’m concerned the old army saying of he’ll find sympathy in the dictionary somewhere between shit & syphilis applies.