Mystery of missing MacKenzie millions
Gethin Chamberlain
______________
Scotsman, UK
He was revealed this week as the perpetrator of Scotland's biggest-ever banking fraud. Yet friends of Donald MacKenzie find it hard to believe that the quiet man with a "nondescript" lifestyle could really have embezzled £21 million from his employer, the Royal Bank of Scotland - and no-one seems to have any idea why.
Asked to recall anything remotely interesting about his personal life, the best anyone could come up with was that his wedding rounded off with a chorus of New York, New York.
He was certainly not a high-roller or a man to throw money about. One former friend said the 45-year-old business banker would make sure he turned up late at events to avoid buying a round of drinks.
It was a complete shock to those who knew MacKenzie when police raided his modest Edinburgh home two years ago and detained him on suspicion of swindling the Royal Bank out of £21 million.
Anyone else might have indulged themselves a little - a new car, perhaps, a house in the country, a few holidays in exotic locations. But not MacKenzie.
Although his legitimate earnings amounted to a healthy £53,268 a year, he contented himself with a pleasant but unprepossessing house in a quiet neighbourhood and a light blue Ford Focus, which remains parked outside in the street. His wife still shuttles the children - aged six and three - about in a gold-coloured Toyota Yaris.
Yet over a five-year period, MacKenzie was responsible for moving around £69 million of the Royal Bank's money, nearly £50 million of which he used to cover the tracks of his fraudulent transactions.
The question everyone wants to answer is simple: why did he do it and what did he do with the money? If the Royal Bank knows the truth, it is not saying. It refuses to talk about the case in public or offer any explanation about how he got away with it.
Bank insiders say even behind closed doors, the name Donald MacKenzie is rarely uttered, such is the embarrassment felt by executives at having been so thoroughly taken in by a man they regarded as one of their highest fliers.
Jun 10, 2006
Gethin Chamberlain
______________
Scotsman, UK
He was revealed this week as the perpetrator of Scotland's biggest-ever banking fraud. Yet friends of Donald MacKenzie find it hard to believe that the quiet man with a "nondescript" lifestyle could really have embezzled £21 million from his employer, the Royal Bank of Scotland - and no-one seems to have any idea why.
Asked to recall anything remotely interesting about his personal life, the best anyone could come up with was that his wedding rounded off with a chorus of New York, New York.
He was certainly not a high-roller or a man to throw money about. One former friend said the 45-year-old business banker would make sure he turned up late at events to avoid buying a round of drinks.
It was a complete shock to those who knew MacKenzie when police raided his modest Edinburgh home two years ago and detained him on suspicion of swindling the Royal Bank out of £21 million.
Anyone else might have indulged themselves a little - a new car, perhaps, a house in the country, a few holidays in exotic locations. But not MacKenzie.
Although his legitimate earnings amounted to a healthy £53,268 a year, he contented himself with a pleasant but unprepossessing house in a quiet neighbourhood and a light blue Ford Focus, which remains parked outside in the street. His wife still shuttles the children - aged six and three - about in a gold-coloured Toyota Yaris.
Yet over a five-year period, MacKenzie was responsible for moving around £69 million of the Royal Bank's money, nearly £50 million of which he used to cover the tracks of his fraudulent transactions.
The question everyone wants to answer is simple: why did he do it and what did he do with the money? If the Royal Bank knows the truth, it is not saying. It refuses to talk about the case in public or offer any explanation about how he got away with it.
Bank insiders say even behind closed doors, the name Donald MacKenzie is rarely uttered, such is the embarrassment felt by executives at having been so thoroughly taken in by a man they regarded as one of their highest fliers.
Jun 10, 2006
