Lexi Holdings ‘worst fraud’ says KPMG’s Green
THE administrator of Lexi Holdings, says the collapsed Manchester property company was the “largest and most extensive fraud” he has seen in his career.
KPMG partner Brian Green was appointed in 2006 to Lexi Holdings weeks after its founder and chief executive Shaid Luqman – a one time feted entrepreneur – was branded “completely dishonest” by a judge and banned from being a company director for the maximum 15 years.
Mr Green told TheBusinessDesk.com: “In terms of the cases I have handled in my career, there is nothing I can think of which has been so big or complex – and it is still continuing.
“There are still a handful of residual properties to sell here and we’re taking legal action in Spain, Portugal, Greece and also Pakistan to try and recover assets.”
Mr Green was speaking after Shaid Luqman’s younger brother, Waheed was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail for his part in the fraud.
Judge David Stockdale QC said the fraud was “complex and sophisticated and conducted on a massive scale”.
Waheed, like his elder brother, who was described in court as the “prime mover” in the seven-month long case, has fled the UK and is living in Pakistan.
The Serious Fraud Office have asked the police to issue a warrant for his arrest – meaning that if he returns to this country he will immediately go to prison.
A warrant already is already active for Shaid, who has already served several prison sentences for contempt of court in relation to the case. He fled to Pakistan in 2011 while wearing an electronic tag having been sentenced for breaching a court order which ordered him not to apply for a passport.
Lexi Holdings began to unravel in 2006 after the brothers were banned from acting as company director after the failure of a separate company, furnishings business Modern Living UK.
Both were disqualified for the maximum term of 15 years and Shaid, who was once placed on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated personal fortune of £250m, was branded “completely dishonest.”
