Receivers for Versailles have recovered only Ј550,000 of the Ј19m fortune siphoned from the collapsed trade finance house by disgraced finance director Fred Clough, it emerged on Tuesday.
Anthony Lomas, a senior partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers, the accountants appointed as receiver to the former FTSE 250 company, told Southwark Crown Court he expected to be able to recover Ј1m in total, but said Mr Clough had prevented investigators from finding the remaining sums.
He said the receivers had settled the amount owed by Mr Cushnie, Versailles’ founder, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the firm's creditors. Mr Lomas told the jury that many of Mr Clough's properties and possessions had been transferred into the names of friends and family.
The court has been told that Mr Clough sent some of the Ј19m to his companion's family in Ghana, and used some to pay his lawyers' fees.
