The FSA announced last month that it was investigating the trading in Fundamental-E Investments shares after the price tripled in four months.
Eagle resigned as chairman of Fundamental-E, an AIM-quoted media company, a week before the announcement.
It has emerged that the FSA probe centres on trades made through SP Bell, which has been placed in administration. Documents filed last week by the administrator reveal that the broker owes £16m for outstanding trades with Pershing Securities, Britain’s largest clearing and settlement house and a subsidiary of The Bank of New York. But the value of securities covering the trades is little more than £6m.
Pershing Nominees is understood to own a large stake in Fundamental-E, whose shares collapsed from 12p to 2p after the probe was announced.
A former commodities trader, Eagle has five children and a collection of high performance cars — including a Porsche. He lives in a £1m house in a picturesque village in Hertfordshire.
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The documents show that the administrator sold SP Bell to SP Angel, an unconnected company, for £50,000. A spokesman stressed that client assets had all been accounted for.
Until mid-July SP Bell had planned to reverse into Merchant House, which is quoted on AIM, but the deal was aborted. Merchant House said it had found a “substantial and material change” in the financial position of SP Bell. The deal would have valued the firm at £1.9m.