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Tuvalu Stamps
TUVALU AND THE LEADERS OF THE WORLD – A PHILATELIC SCANDAL
Compiled by Brian Cannon
Word processing by Amanda Levecque
Although this article is written based on the legal proceedings initiated by the government of Tuvalu, stamps of other countries were also involved, including Gibraltar, the Republic of Kiribati, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, and St. Lucia.

The Tuvalu Philatelic Bureau was established in December 1975, shortly after legal separation of the Ellice Islands from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, which occurred two months earlier. The first postage stamps of the new colony, renamed to Tuvalu, were to be released on January 1st, 1976. This was the date that full administrative autonomy would be transferred to the capital, Funafuti.

Earlier in 1975, a British firm called Philatelists Limited approached the soon-to-be administrators of the new colony and were able to secure a contractual agreement whereby they would undertake the management of the Bureau and help with stamp subject issues. This firm already had a similar contract with the government of St. Vincent in the West Indies, which was a successful venture at the time.

Philatelists Limited had been aggressively approaching smaller countries with the offer of establishing a philatelic service, complete with staff training and recommendation on “wise” policies, recommended stamp issues, and staff training. For this service the company might typically receive 25% of the gross sales or ask a 20% shareholding in a Government Controlled Limited Liability Company specifically set up to run a Bureau on commercial lines. The only additional charge was in respect of the salary, travel and accommodation expenses of a trained Bureau Manager whom they could provide. Philatelists Ltd. could provide all capital required to set up and equip a Bureau and then be reimbursed as a first charge on subsequent profits.

In 1976, printing of Tuvalu’s stamps was contracted out to the Crown Agents of London, responsible for similar tasks for many other colonies for well over 100 years. However, with the first stamp issue in 1977, Philatelists Limited also took over control of the designing and printing of all issues. In effect, they gained complete control of the production of Tuvaluan postage stamps, once a new issue had been approved by the Tuvalu Stamp Advisory Committee. No doubt they had considerable influence on the stamp subjects, especially given the obvious lack of philatelic knowledge by the government of the new colony of Tuvalu.

In 1980, the firm’s name was changed to Philatelists (1980) Limited, under the control of Ronald Grover of England.

On December 19, 1983, Tuvalu undertook a contract with Philatelic Ltd. and Philatelist Caribbean Ltd. and those companies acquired the rights to produce and distribute Tuvalu stamps. Participating in the program for the series, Leaders of the World (LOW), Tuvalu released Locomotives, Part 1, on February 29, 1984. This issue consisted of 4 values, see tenant (8 stamps) and during that year alone a total of 24 sets consisting of 246 stamps were issued in the LOW programme. Dates of contracts and their details are not known.

On January 15, 1987, receivers were appointed at Philatelist which were thought to have £20 million of LOW unsold stock. Issue No. 13 of this magazine reported the Tuvalu Government appointed a UK solicitor to purchase and dispose of all stock of Tuvalu stamps and that printers were paid directly for these. Format International Security Printers, Ltd. was also in financial difficulties through their association with the LOW issues and Clive Feigenbaum acquired 60% of the shares.

Also in January 1987 the London and New York International Stamp Company Ltd. (LYNI) and Philatelic Distribution Corporation Ltd. (PDC) paid £300,000 for the right to reprint certain stamps whether reprinting was subject to the Tuvalu Government giving consent is not certain.

The Government of Tuvalu entered into a contract with Philatelic Distribution Corporation Ltd. (PDC) in June 1987. PDC under a further agreement purchased from the Tuvalu government some 16 million stamps for £65,000. Over 2 million were alleged to be flawed.

A further contract, which was to give rise to litigation, was made on the 17th of October 1987 between PDC and Tuvalu. Tuvalu gave PDC strictly defined rights to design, produce, sell and distribute thematic stamps for Tuvalu and its Islands. Clauses in this contract required stamps to be produced “under the supervision of PDC by a security printers acceptable to the government” and required PDC to “uphold the integrity of the Government”. PDC used the printers, Format International Security Printers, Ltd.

By March 1988, the Tuvalu Government suspected this contract was being breached. They were concerned about advertisements which offered flawed Tuvalu stamps. During a series of communications with Clive Feigenbaum at PDC, Tuvalu were misled about the relationship between PDC and Format; nor were they informed that Format had been instructed to print a substantial quantity of flawed stamps. Instead, Tuvalu was told that Format were extremely reliable and made every effort to minimize the risk of errors during printing. However, the Tuvalu Government made it clear that Format were not to be used as printers but PDC continued to give orders to Format.

On the 3rd of March, the Tuvalu Government terminated the contract of the 7th of October, 1987. They also sought and were granted injunctions restraining any production or dealing in material bearing the name of Tuvalu or the use of printing materials. The ‘ordered material’ were described as:

“all and any stamps or other articles of Philately and all plates dies artwork materials and other goods….bearing the name of Tuvalu or any of its islands and produced by or for or at the direction or at the direction of any of the Defendants.”

Variations to this order were agreed. March 7th, Mr. Fred Hughes, on behalf of Format, undertook not to use any ordered materials including a number of plates locked away on their premises. On April 25th, Mr. Roger Apsey, stock controller of PDC, Mr. Allan Hayward, financial adviser and controller of the group of companies, Mr. Clive Feigenbaum and LYNI undertook not to dispose of or remove or tamper with ordered materials with the exception of certain authorized and unflawed stamps. Feigenbaum stressed the losses that might be made without these variations. (For example, LYNI would suffer a loss of £465,ooo and be liable to pay compensation to its customers).

Meanwhile, on the 18th of April, an employee of PDC gave an order to Format to print Tuvalu stamps and Format complied. In accordance with the then existing arrangements with PDC, Format was required to print approximately 21,000 sets of unflawed stamps and 14,000 sets of flawed stamps, a total order of almost 4 million stamps with a rough value of £2 million. This was essentially a repeat of an order made prior to any court proceedings. In addition, the marketing manager of Philatelic Collections, Ltd. had placed an order for album pages for Tuvalu stamps. Breaches continued until the beginning of May, 1989.

On April 27 1988, Scotland Yard Fraud Squad together with officers of the Gibraltar Fraud Squad executed a search warrant at Format’s premises where Detective Constable Faulds saw a substantial quantity of Tuvalu stamps which had just been printed. On May 14th, they removed thousands of stamps bearing the name of Tuvalu as well as other material.

In July, 1989, Mr. Feigenbaum, as Chairman and Managing Director of PDC was held guilty of contempt of the court in breaching the order made on 3 March, 1989 and was committed to prison for three months and fined £3,000. F. Hughes, Managing Director of Format and Roger Apsey, Stock Controller of PDC, were given suspended sentences and fines of £750. They were ordered to pay costs on an indemnity basis.

Clive Feigenbaum appealed and on the 20th of October, 1989, the Judge of the Court of Appeal “felt the imposition of a prison sentence a very grave punishment’ in view of Mr. Feigenbaum’s ‘good record and character’. The sentence of three months imprisonment was quashed and there was not order for costs.

The Philatelic Exporter, Editor and Publisher Graham R. Phillips, June 1992, Pg. 4-5

As a result of Scotland Yard’s investigation, eight members of the Philatelic trade were arraigned at Bow Street Magistrate’s Court on November 28, 1990. On June 12, 1991 they were committed on bail to stand trial. That trial began April 27, 1992 at Southward Crown Court.

Six companies involved

The defendants are involved with the following companies:

Format International Security Printers, founded and run by Peeling and Hughes, until Feigenbaum took it over and employed Wallen in March 1989
Philatelists Ltd, the philatelic agents established by Grover which went into liquidation
Philatelic Distribution Corporation Ltd. (PDC), which succeeded Philatelists Ltd as agents, the principals of which were Feigenbaum, Lagerwaard, and Wallen before he was moved to Format
Urch Harris & Co. Ltd. (UH), owned by Feigenbaum’s family was to have been the principal retail outlet for the ‘errors’. Also involved were Lagerwaard Grover, and Pillinger
London and New York International Stamp Company Ltd. (LNYI) also owned by Feigenbaum’s family, was another outlet for the bogus stamps
Casco Ltd. (later Caphco Ltd. after privatization), of which John Smith was managing director, philatelic agents to Commonwealth countries.
The trial began on April 27 at Southwark Crown Court (London) of eight men charged with fraud and conspiracy concerning the alleged production of certain issues of Commonwealth countries’ postage stamps during the mid to late 1890s. Had the fraud been allowed to succeed, the prosecution, led by Mr. Michael Worsley QC, alleges the millions of pounds would have been involved. The errors included missing colours, misplaced watermarks, imports, etc and were to have been gradually sold to the public as ‘rarities’.

The start of the case was delayed whilst the 18 barristers and their reams of paper were found room in the crowded court. The trial is expected to last three or four months.

The Defendants and the Charges

Clive Feigenbaum (51), Mount Park Road, Harrow-on-Hill, Middlesex: one charge of fraudulent trading, three of conspiring to use a false instrument, and three of conspiracy to defraud.
Ronald Grover (56), Lodge Road, Beulieu, Hampshire: one charge of aiding and abetting fraudulent trading, one of conspiring to use a false instrument, and one of conspiring to defraud.
Frederick Hughes (69), Downs Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey: one charge of fraudulent trading, two of conspiring to use a false instrument, and two of conspiring to defraud.
Aart Lagerwaard (44), Cranberry Close, Marchwood, Southampton: one charge of aiding

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Also in January 1987 the London and New York International Stamp Company Ltd. (LYNI) and Philatelic Distribution Corporation Ltd. (PDC) paid £300,000 for the right to reprint certain stamps whether reprinting was subject to the Tuvalu Government giving consent is not certain

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