Priti Patel unveiled her “beating crime plan” last week. But spotting bad behaviour isn’t always as easy as it seems — as Patel, 49, should know. Before becoming home secretary, she joined the board of accounting software firm Accloud, which was targeting the Indian market and an AIM listing. Patel, who was paid £13,462 for her 6½ months on Accloud’s board, stepped down when she joined the cabinet in July 2019. Since then, things haven’t quite gone to plan.
UK Finance chairman Bob Wigley resigned as Accloud’s chairman. Even worse, regulators in Australia began setting their sights on its main investor, IPO Wealth, part of a company called Mayfair 101 set up by property entrepreneur James Mawhinney. He had invested in a string of companies including Accloud and bought Dunk Island in Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) accused Mayfair 101 of “misleading or deceptive conduct” over the advertising of debenture products, while the City watchdog issued a warning that Mayfair 101 was not authorised in the UK.
The company had already failed to meet payment terms for Dunk Island, off the coast of Queensland, which was repossessed. In April, Mawhinney, 37, was banned by the ASIC from promoting and raising funds, though he has vowed to appeal and claims to be restructuring his group. Receivers, though, are winding down IPO Wealth and looking to sell its assets.
Accloud hired broker WH Ireland for its float in March, but that now looks up in the air. It’s just as well Patel stepped off the board before the stormclouds gathered.
Lynch embraces prickly helpers
Patel is now the only person standing in the way of British tech billionaire Mike Lynch being extradited. A judge ruled last month that he could be made to travel to the US, where he faces 17 counts of conspiracy and fraud linked to Hewlett-Packard’s disastrous $11 billion takeover of FTSE 100 software firm Autonomy in 2011. HP wrote down the value of the deal by $8.8 billion and accused Lynch and other executives of fraud, which they deny.
Advertisement
Lynch, 56, must convince Patel to block the move — and he has some lobbying power on his side. As well as City spinner Brunswick and David Yelland, former editor of The Sun, Prufrock hears he has enlisted the services of Hawthorn Advisors to help win on the political front. The PR outfit was co-founded by Conservative Party co-chairman Ben Elliot and has tentacles stretching into the corridors of Westminster, with an advisory board that includes former Labour MP Caroline Flint and former Tory MP Lord Garnier. Its directors include several former political advisers.
Hiring Hawthorn, whose other co-founder is former Weber Shandwick and Brunswick executive John Evans, is not without its risks, however. The PR firm likes to sail close to the wind.
Alison Rose caused consternation in the upper echelons of NatWest when she used Hawthorn on a personal basis to lobby for the top job before being appointed. And fallen fund manager Neil Woodford may regret having taken the firm’s advice over his lachrymose comeback interview.
McLaren man revs up housing
Talk about a handbrake turn. Paul Buddin, recently departed finance chief of supercar maker McLaren, has emerged as the chief financial officer of TopHat, the Goldman Sachs-backed modular housing start-up.
The Derby-based company wants its factory-built homes to help alleviate the UK’s housing shortage and Buddin, 41, sounds up for the challenge. Mind you, the perks aren’t quite as attractive. “Yes, I did get to drive a few nice McLarens when I was there and it will be part of the role I will clearly miss,” he admits. “We don’t have a similar scheme [at TopHat] at the moment.” No prefab freebie then.
Advertisement
● More on Vishal Garg, the entrepreneur who is heading for a $7.7 billion (£5.5 billion) Spac listing of his Better.com online mortgage lender — while being sued over a previous mortgage investment scheme, Phoenix. Investors including Betfair founder Andrew Black claim not to have received the payouts promised after investing in 2011, and accuse fortysomething Garg of running a “fraudulent scheme … set up to fund the director defendants’ other ventures”. A judge ruled in March that Garg had to open up Phoenix’s books — but accusers now allege that the defendants “cannot claim with a straight face that they have produced all books and records”. Garg has denied the accusations, with his lawyers saying: “We believe their claims suffer from multiple fatal deficiencies.” Garg’s lawyers add that he and his team have complied fully with all their legal obligations.
Just saying
“Our people have been frustrated. They couldn’t even move from one part of the company to another without applying for a P45”
— Babcock boss David Lockwood on trying to break down silos at the FTSE 250 military support contractor
Twitter poll
Advertisement
Funny business
