LONDON BRIEFING:After almost two decades exiled in Cyprus Asil Nadir finally feels he can get a fair hearing, writes FIONA WALSH
FOR ANYONE under the age of 30, the hoopla surrounding the return of tycoon Asil Nadir to London last week must have been entirely baffling.
Even those who were around when the former Polly Peck businessman skipped bail and fled Britain for Northern Cyprus 17 years ago were somewhat taken aback by the showbiz nature of his return via private jet with a Sky TV news crew in tow.
Nadir, now 69, was at the centre of one of the biggest financial scandals ever seen in the City of London when his Polly Peck empire collapsed in 1990 with debts of £1.3 billion, leaving thousands of people out of pocket. In the 1980s, Polly Peck had been the best-performing share of the decade – £1,000 invested in the company in the early days was worth a cool £1 million at the end of the 1980s – assuming you had the foresight to sell before the rot set in. By 1990, Nadir was judged by the Sunday Timesto be the 36th richest person in the country.
Polly Peck started life as a modest textiles company in east London and was built up by Nadir, whose family came to Britain from Cyprus in the 1950s, into a global conglomerate via a series of takeovers in the deal-crazy 1980s.
There was a fruit packing and cardboard box business in Cyprus that the City never quite understood, but, at its peak, Polly Peck spanned consumer electronics and hotel franchises to the Del Monte canned fruit brand and had earned itself membership of the prestigious FTSE 100 index.
Things began to unravel in 1990, when Nadir attempted to take the company private, with a bid to buy back the 75 per cent of the shares not under his ownership. He aborted the buyback attempt just a few days later, creating panic in the process as the banks and others rushed to withdraw their own funds from the business.
The Serious Fraud Office raided offices connected with Nadir family trusts and within a matter of weeks the administrators were called in. Nadir was later arrested but fled Britain in 1993, four months before he was due to stand trial on 66 charges of theft and false accounting.
So why, after 17 years holed up in Northern Cyprus – which does not have an extradition treaty with Britain – has Nadir decided to return? The fallen tycoon insists he wants nothing more than to clear his name. In a series of interviews given to coincide with his high-profile return to London, Nadir said he had always intended to come back but believed he would not get a fair trial. Now, however, he feels there is “the right environment” for his side to be heard. Those comments sparked speculation that the businessman has done a deal with the government or the Serious Fraud Office, although that was swiftly denied.
Nadir has spent his 17 years away from Britain leading a luxury lifestyle in Cyprus, where he was greeted as a folk hero on his return and where he has extensive business interests. But he is said to have become increasingly isolated and homesick for London. There were also difficulties over a £4 million tax demand for his Kibris Media business.
Although Northern Cyprus has no extradition arrangements with Britain, the authorities there have been more willing in recent years to hand over some suspects, and this may have helped persuade Nadir that the time was right to return. The passage of time is likely to have been the biggest factor, however. With every year that the trial has been delayed, the prosecution’s job has become harder: documents will have been mislaid; computer records will have corrupted; witnesses will have moved on; some will have died; and everything will be so much harder to remember. Even the law has changed.
His return to Britain thus poses huge difficulties for the SFO as it dusts off its case against the failed businessman. There is embarrassment, too, for the Tory party – Nadir was a substantial donor to the party in the late 1980s and caused consternation last week when he suggested he might make further contributions to their political coffers once his trial was over. The party moved swiftly to distance itself and is said to be ready to return the earlier donations, thought to amount to some £440,000, should he be found guilty.
Nadir is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Friday when his hearing begins but in the meantime is enjoying London life again, despite having to wear an electronic tag. He and his 26-year-old wife Nur are renting a luxury house in Mayfair at a reported cost of £20,000 a month and have been spotted out at some of the capital’s more fashionable eateries.
It’s not known whether he’s still wearing the watch given to him by the former Northern Ireland minister Michael Mates engraved: “Don’t let the buggers get you down.”
But he’s certainly still taking the advice.
Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardiannewspaper in London
