Fraudulent Claims of MGRover Directors.

[KevG]

From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8134981.stm

Fraud probe into MG Rover demise

Longbridge factory, Birmingham
MG Rover collapsed in April 2005

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the demise of Birmingham-based carmaker MG Rover in 2005.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says Business Secretary Lord Mandelson will issue a brief written statement on Monday confirming the move.

It follows a four-year inquiry into the collapse, which led to 6,000 job cuts.

The four executives in control of MG Rover at the time said there was "no suggestion of improper conduct".

A spokesman for the MG Rover directors said: "The directors have at all times willingly accounted for their actions, which kept MG Rover alive for five years."

When the MG plant at Longbridge, Birmingham, closed the government announced a £150m support package for those losing their jobs and for the estimated 12,500 people affected in subsidiary firms.

Report delayed

The new investigation comes after the completion of a four-year inquiry under section 432 of the Companies Act by inspectors appointed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Ramsay Smith, speaking for the Phoenix Group: 'There is no basis whatsoever for an investigation'

Part of that investigation was supposed to find out what had happened to the more than £400m left to Phoenix Ventures when it took over MG Rover from BMW in 2000.

Our correspondent says the report by the business department's inspectors will now be delayed pending a decision on whether there will be criminal prosecutions.

MG Rover went into administration under insolvency procedures in April 2005, with debts of more than £1bn. Its assets were sold in 2006 to China's Nanjing Automobile, which revived the MG sports car brand.

A quartet of executives known as the Phoenix Four had taken control of the company in May 2000 after originally buying MG Rover for a nominal £10.

The business came with an interest-free loan of £427m from BMW, the previous owner.


There are likely to be questions raised about why the case has been referred to the SFO only after completion of the inspectors' enquiry
BBC business editor Robert Peston

Read more from Robert here

"John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards are estimated to have taken out more than £40m in pay and pensions in the years before the business went down," said our correspondent.

The Commons public accounts committee criticised the government in 2006 for being too distant from Phoenix Ventures and not sufficiently prepared for its demise.

Our correspondent says there are likely to be questions raised about why the case has been referred to the SFO only after completion of the inspectors' inquiry, rather than bringing in police at an earlier stage.

'Heart of the matter'

A spokesman for the directors said that "time and again they asked for government help and didn't get it".

"Four years and £16m of taxpayers' money has been swallowed up on this [Department for Business] inquiry and the directors' major concern that it will fail to get to the heart of the matter, which is why the government withdrew its offer of a loan to the company at the eleventh hour, allowing 6,000 workers to lose their jobs," they said.

Their statement added: "Four years on, any suggestion of another further investigation is frankly ridiculous and smacks of kicking this issue into the long grass."

They also said the government had refused more than 30 requests under the Freedom of Information Act which would have revealed correspondence and documents.

They said these would have "shed some light on the government's role in the affair".

Lets face it who is surprised that folk were on the take, it goes on in every company, the world is full of greedy bastards with no morals

[arwilson80]

I've 'blamed' the 4 of them since the year before the MG-R collapse... especially when they got / took more home in various renumeration packages that the top guys at BMW. It couldn't be justified never mind sustained!

[stamford]

Whenever a company gets offered for a nominal fee of £1 or £10 there is always a hidden agenda with regards the debt and how it is managed. It is pretty obvious the 'four' took a flier on how this would be managed or indeed creamed to the point where it became financially unviable. For such a takeover to work everyone connected had to be in on it from the start and that requires a certain amount of ignorance, arrogance and the ability to disguise the truth.

The only person I can think of in recent years that managed to turn around a £1 purchase and make it into a business was Ken Bates, but even he was questioned at times. It's not what you know, it is who you know.

I'm sure there will be plenty of doors being shut in their faces when they start to delve deeper. It will go deeper than most people realise and involve some high profile people if it is allowed to get that far.

The obvious thing will be 'your lifestyle far exceeds your income'.

[Tony10]

It does not surprise me! However I feel that the biggest shame was the Goverment not stepping into save the company! However I was watching the news this morning! Auto express man rekoned that MG may emerger as a individual company again I.E. someone buying the brand back from China and re launching it!