After a 2009 controversy regarding a pre-pack administration involving Wensum, Business mogul and the former Health Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, is once again caught up in a controversy of the same accusation, an insolvency procedure.
This time, The Guardian reports the former British Conservative has been accused of the same insolvency procedure but involving Project Viva and Dorson Transform, both of which are under Dorrell.
The news agency alleges that after further investigation, including reading emails from several parties to Dorrell and vice versa, the former Secretary may have again been involved in a pre-pack administration of a publishing company, known as Project Viva, to a new corporate entity which he in fact owns, the Dorson Transform.
According to the publication, Project Viva was owned by Dorrell's wife for 35% while its financier, Paul Meier, owns the publishing company by 30%, and 35% by Kate Rogers. However, such persons were either demoted to employees or even dropped as shareholders after the sale was made to Dorrell's other company, Dorson Transform.
The recent activities drew attention to Dorrell himself, especially since it involves Insolvency, a legal procedure which means a certain corporate entity cannot meet its financial obligations anymore.
In the case of Project Viva, the company resorted to selling but the fact is that it was sold to Dorrell's other company, but the news became suspicious when other shareholders, like Rogers, were dismissed.
"Yet again, to requote another of Stephen Dorrell's former shareholders, the process was like a spider eviscerating a fly it has caught, taking all the good bits, then dropping the useless carcass, which is the creditors, the shareholders and of course the taxpayer," Rogers said in a statement, as per the news outlet.
Such procedure was not newly attached to Dorrell's name after being involved in a 2008 controversy with Wensum, as reported by the Telegraph. The acquisition of Dorrell's company, Wensum, towards the LA Group company Allen & Douglas (A&D) initially paved the way for negative impression towards Dorrell.
"The ministry of trade and industry in the UK talk about ethics in the UK business world. I think they should go after people like this and analyse what they have actually done. You can't have listed companies operating like this. It loses credibility within your whole listed market," Tom Taylor, an independent director at LA Group previously said, as per the publication.
However, this was previously denied by Dorrell himself when he defended the process of acquisition towards A&D. "We felt this was a way both of strengthening the corporate wear business and improving the liquidity of the overall group," Dorrell said at that time. "Because it was an all-paper transaction, the stock and debtors of A&D were available to improve the borrowing facilities of the overall group," he added.
