£3bn lawsuit filed against RBS and former boss Goodwin

Nobu Su, the billionaire chairman of Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) and one of the wealthiest men in Asia at the time, alleges the Edinburgh-based bank’s former chief executive used his company’s cash to keep the bank afloat in the lead up to its near-collapsed and subsequent bailout at a cost of £45 billion to the UK taxpayer.

Mr Su, 59, first started legal proceedings against RBS in 2014 but the case was dropped when a Singaporean court ruled that it would have to be heard in London.

Now the action is believed to be one of the biggest lawsuits ever brought against a British individual.

In it, Goodwin, together with two former senior colleagues, and the bank itself, are accused of “hijacking” TMT’S accounts between 2007 and 2009, and using them as “unlimited cash machines”.

The tycoon claims that as Goodwin’s house of cards began to crumble, billions of dollars of TMT’s cash was “siphoned off” without consent.

The value of TMT’S assets, which included vast fleets of container ships, liquified natural gas (LNG) ships, very large crude (VLCC) tankers and bulk carriers worth up to $500 million each, were also exploited by RBS at a time when its own future was in crisis, he claims.

Goodwin, who was been stripped of his knighthood after the RBS bailout, and and former senior colleagues Neena Birdie and Marie Chang are also accused of insider trading and of manipulating shares worth almost $100m.

They are said to have been “negligent in protecting his business interests” and conspired to “injure Mr Su by unlawful means”.

He claims their actions, which almost brought family business TMT to its knees, cost him $3.6bn (£2.5bn).

Now the tycoon is preparing a claim against Mr Goodwin, Ms Birdie, Ms Chang, The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (trading as RBS Greenwich Futures), and The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (Singapore Branch) in the British courts.

Goodwin sparked fresh outrage at the weekend after it emerged he still pockets a pension pot “worth £17 million”.

When he stepped down in 2008 he agreed to a £200,000 reduction in his pension entitlement.

But the Mirror has reported that he still enjoys a £450,000 a year pension, as well as raking in £6 million since quitting a decade ago - with a £2.8 million lump sum.