Carl Cushnie and Fred Clough, the former chairman and finance director of Versailles, the trade finance house, were each sentenced to six years in prison yesterday for masterminding a Ј150 million fraud described by the presiding judge as “one of the worst examples of conspiracy to defraud” ever to come before the courts.
Cushnie, whom Tony Blair once introduced to former US President Bill Clinton as one of Britain’s leading black businessmen, was also banned from being a director for ten years.
Clough was banned for 15 years, the maximum permitted. The judge said he was imposing lengthy disqualifications barring them from holding directorships to “protect the public from your activities once you have been released.”
The fraud had involved a massive deception of the London Stock Exchange, which impacted on the confidence of investors. Versailles’ accounts for 1999 showed turnover of Ј232 million, whereas its actual turnover was less than Ј37 million...
