The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has issued a statement confirming it is still investigating the collapse of outside broadcasting company, Arena Television.
Arena Television ceased trading in November 2021, with debts believed to be around £280 million.
The company’s administrator Kroll said Arena secured more than £290 million against assets which are now believed to have never existed.
The SFO first announced it was investigating the collapse of the company in February 2022.
It has now said, “an ongoing criminal investigation is being conducted into the business practices of individuals associated with Arena Television Limited and its linked entities”.
The SFO added that as the investigation is still ongoing it is unable to comment further at this time.
While the SFO investigation continues, there have been developments in the collapse of the company during 2024.
In July, liquidators Kroll Advisory launched a civil case against Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland.
Kroll accused Lloyds and its Bank of Scotland of allegedly allowing Arena’s directors to perpetrate a “substantial and wide-ranging fraud” against multiple lenders.
According to court documents submitted as part of the case, of the 8,196 assets that had loans outstanding against them when Arena collapsed, “only 66 existed”.
Last month Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland hit back at Kroll, claiming that they should not be liable for payments they processed for OB company that were linked to the alleged £1.2 billion fraud, and that Arena’s former directors, Richard Yeowart and Robert Hopkinson, had “actual authority” to make the payments under the terms of the accounts.
The banks argued that the liquidators are “put to strict proof” on whether any individual payments were part of an asset-backed lending fraud conducted by the directors of Arena and Sentinel Broadcast Ltd, adding that no individual employee at Lloyds or the Bank of Scotland had “any reasonable grounds to believe that any impugned payment instruction” was an attempt by the directors to defraud Arena.
Lloyds countersued the liquidators for £12.5 million, stating Arena had failed to repay money it was owed for asset finance lending.
