By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: July 10th, 2011 THE police force investigating an alleged £1 billion fraud at the former Reading operation of HBOS has no plans to probe the possible role of the bank’s former senior executives and board directors in the scandal. Thames Valley Police, working in conjunction with the Serious Organised [...]
Blog post revised and retitled October 3rd, 2010 A fourth person has been arrested in relation to Thames Valley Police’s investigation into “corruption and large-scale fraud in connection with HBOS”. [Note: comments on this post have now been disabled and earlier comments from witnesses have been removed as a result of the police investigation "Operation [...]
September 11th, 2010 David Mills, the founder of Core Enterprise Management and Quayside Corporate Services, is a past master of prepackaged administrations and corporate phoenixings. It therefore came as no surprise when I learnt today that a company where Mills was chairman, London-based interdealer broker Mint Partners, went into administration on August 16. Nor that [...]
August 28th, 2010 [Editorial Note: This article was written in June 2010 but has not previously been published in its entirety. An edited version was published in The Sunday Times on June 27th, 2010] Directors of an aviation business that went bust owing HBOS £113 million in September 2007 were allowed to buy the business back [...]
By Ian Fraser and Michael Tait Published: The Mail on Sunday Date: February 22nd, 2010 AN SNP donor whose ski resort went bust owing the taxpayer millions of pounds has been allowed to buy it back in a cut-price deal. The Aviemore complex, which was jointly owned by Nationalist supporter Donald Macdonald, collapsed last summer. [...]
November 3rd, 2009 (first published June 9th, 2009) [Note: comments on this post have been disabled and earlier comments from witnesses have been removed as a result of the current Thames Valley Police and Serious Organised Crime Agency investigation and expected trial. Ian Fraser, January 5th, 2011. Minor edits on January 29th, 2012] A recent [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: The Sunday Times Date: July 19th, 2009 Is the taxpayer losing out in pre-packaged administrations that leave state-owned banks swallowing debts? Can we call pre-packaged administrations — which allow professional advisers quickly to put a company into administration, wipe out its debts then immediately sell it on — a fair means [...]
June 9th, 2009 They’re clearly charming guys at Burges Salmon. Here’s one or two quick facts about the Bristol-based law firm. Its managing partner Guy Stobart stepped down in May, and was replaced by Chris Jackson. Stobart is now, according to The Lawyer, “in negotiations with the firm about his future role.” The law firm [...]