From The Telegraph
British newspaper The Telegraph wrote on Sunday that the Serious Fraud Office of Great Britain has started looking into companies behind the A1 Grand Prix Series whose creditors still claim to be owed more than $800M.
Two years ago the A1 Grand Prix Series ran out of money. It cancelled a key race on Australia's Gold Coast and called in the administrators to its UK operating company.
But for the past three months, top fraud investigators have now become interested in A1 Grand Prix Operations, which is in administration with debts of $200M, and A1 Holdings, which is in compulsory liquidation with creditors claiming more than $600M.
These two companies behind the series are linked to Tony Teixeira, the South African diamonds entrepreneur. The companies now owe money to a number of national motor racing teams and the Australian government.
Investigators are looking into the companies' accounting and how they claimed to have raised financing, The Sunday Telegraph understands.
As late as autumn 2009, Mr Teixeira had personally promised Australian sports minister Phil Reeves that 18 to 20 teams would be turning up to race in a flagship Gold Coast event within three weeks on October 25. He also promised that €500m was about to be injected into the group of companies – which never materialised – and insisted that the administration of A1 Grand Prix Operations would not affect the event.
At this point, the cars were still impounded in an aircraft hangar in Oxfordshire, where Top Gear is filmed.
There are currently 15 unsatisfied county court judgments for financial claims against A1 Grand Prix Operations. There are two against A1 Holdings, plus a US court order for it to pay $4.5m to the US A1 Grand Prix racing team.
Click here to read the full article in the Daily Telegraph.
British newspaper The Telegraph wrote on Sunday that the Serious Fraud Office of Great Britain has started looking into companies behind the A1 Grand Prix Series whose creditors still claim to be owed more than $800M.
Two years ago the A1 Grand Prix Series ran out of money. It cancelled a key race on Australia's Gold Coast and called in the administrators to its UK operating company.
But for the past three months, top fraud investigators have now become interested in A1 Grand Prix Operations, which is in administration with debts of $200M, and A1 Holdings, which is in compulsory liquidation with creditors claiming more than $600M.
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| Photo: WRI2 |
These two companies behind the series are linked to Tony Teixeira, the South African diamonds entrepreneur. The companies now owe money to a number of national motor racing teams and the Australian government.
Investigators are looking into the companies' accounting and how they claimed to have raised financing, The Sunday Telegraph understands.
As late as autumn 2009, Mr Teixeira had personally promised Australian sports minister Phil Reeves that 18 to 20 teams would be turning up to race in a flagship Gold Coast event within three weeks on October 25. He also promised that €500m was about to be injected into the group of companies – which never materialised – and insisted that the administration of A1 Grand Prix Operations would not affect the event.
At this point, the cars were still impounded in an aircraft hangar in Oxfordshire, where Top Gear is filmed.
There are currently 15 unsatisfied county court judgments for financial claims against A1 Grand Prix Operations. There are two against A1 Holdings, plus a US court order for it to pay $4.5m to the US A1 Grand Prix racing team.
Click here to read the full article in the Daily Telegraph.