As beleaguered former BHS boss Philip Green floats around the Mediterranean, reeling from the barrage of criticism he has received this week at the hands of British MPs, he might soon find himself worrying about much more than a few million pounds and a withdrawn knighthood. For according to Westminster insiders, angry politicians are actively seeking out George Oscar Bluth Jr., better known as G.O.B., with the thought of hiring the part-time magician to blow up Green’s yacht.
Green has been condemned for his role in the demise of BHS, a department store chain which even before his purchase in 2000 had developed a reputation for exploiting the elderly, preying on patriotic nostalgia as it flogged mediocre clothing items and household goods.
The company entered administration in April with a £571 million shortfall in its pension fund, after Green sold it last year for £1 to a former bankrupt with neither credentials nor money to his name. 20,000 past employees of BHS will be covered in part by the Pension Protection Fund, but still stand to receive less money than promised. All BHS stores will close by the end of August, with a loss of 11,000 jobs.
After he faced a parliamentary select committee in June, the report published by MPs this week into the collapse of BHS branded Green the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’. He is criticised for extracting almost £400 million in dividends over his fifteen years running the company, which was part of the Arcadia Group chaired by Green but legally owned by his Monaco-based wife. The embattled corporate bruiser has faced calls for compensation to cover the pension shortfall, but despite vowing to ‘fix this mess’, MPs have seen little progress. And that is where G.O.B. comes in.
The Bluth family and their real estate firm are no strangers to dodgy business deals, George Sr. once finding himself incarcerated on suspicion of fraud and some light treason. And with G.O.B.’s magic career in choppy waters at the best of times, he is likely to relish the thought of a trip overseas for a little extra pocket money. His yacht-sinking experience stems from an ill-fated illusion one spring break, when he blew up the Bluth yacht as a means of making it disappear. Ta-da! The illusion worked, but almost killed a former Bluth employee, and failed to make the cut on the popular Girls With Low Self-Esteem DVD.
Green is currently bobbing somewhere around Skiathos, the Greek island in the northwest Aegean Sea. His superyacht, at a cost of £100 million, reportedly comes equipped with hot tubs, a swimming pool, a helipad, three lifts, a beauty salon, a barbecue, and a fleet of jet-skis. The Lucille, named after the Bluth family matriarch, was never so glamorous. But with G.O.B. ever stealthy as he rides about on his Segway, Philip Green ought to be very concerned indeed.
