Polly Peck Fraud Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Polly Peck Fraud - Essay Example However, in spite of all these efforts, fraud still exists all over the world as seen in the case of Polly Peck Fraud. More than 20 years ago, city funds and small financiers were surprised as one of the safest bets on the London Stock Exchange imploded. The share price of an international trading corporation, Polly Peck International (PPI), collapsed following raiding of its premises by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) at the center of the empire constructed by Asil Nadir, its apparently outstanding chief (Casciani, 2008). Asil was a 71-year-old British citizen of Turkish-Cypriot origin. When he was arraigned to court, he protested his innocence but then ran away from the country asserting that he will not get a fair hearing. In 2010, 17 years later, he came back stating that he wanted to clear his name. Instead, a jury confirmed that he was a thief following a mammoth and sometimes a bewilderingly complex trial. According to Casciani (2008), Asil was found guilty of ten thefts from P olly Peck amounting to? 29 million, and he was cleared of an additional three lawsuits regarding approximately? 5 million. PPI was built by Asil Nadir out of very little. The rise of Asil in the 1980s started with an amazingly shrewd investment in a small textile company which he simply referred to as Polly Peck. He used Polly Peck as a means to construct a trading empire throughout Europe hence adding International to the Polly Peck along the way. Nadir and PPI possessed at the company’s height what was once one of the largest electronics companies in Europe, Del Monte- the global fruit brand, and leisure complexes and hotels. According to The Guardian (2012), he posted stratospheric profits each quarter hence everyone wanted a piece of PPI in the get-rich-quick environment of late 1980s Britain. As a result, PPI was worth ? 2 billion by the end of the decade hence, making it an FTSE 100 player. Some shareholders had observed returns of over 1,000 times their original stake although very few of them got out prior to crash down of PPI. One of Nadir’s plush management companies in Mayfair was raided by the Serious Fraud Office on September 19, 1990. The following day, PPI’s share price trailed in the middle of rumors and speculation. Nadir started to be investigated by the Serious Fraud Office by looking at allegations of insider dealing- a line of investigation that was dropped later. Instead, Serious Fraud Office asserted that it had obtained evidence that Asil had stolen millions of pounds that belonged to investors of PPI. Asil had a very high degree of control over finances of PPI him (The Guardian, 2012). He had authority to withdrawing or depositing money without obtaining a counter-signature from another director. The Guardian (2012) asserts that the jury was told by the prosecution that Asil, with the support of close confidants, used over 50 transfers to steal about? 151 million from PPI from August 1987 onward. While in the court , the businessmen agreed that the Asil instructed majority of transfers.