Lobbying scandal financier Lex Greensill is set to be banned from serving as a company director for nine years, the Insolvency Service has announced.
Greensill actively pushed services provided by his companies to the UK government and even hired former prime minister David Cameron to court ministers and civil servants on his behalf before the Australian businessman’s global empire crashed in 2021.
The lobbying scandal unfolded after the business’ demise, driven by several investigations. It emerged that at one stage in 2015, then-government chief commercial officer Bill Crothers worked for Greensill Capital at the same time as continuing in his civil service post. That revelation prompted a probe into the number of civil servants who hold second jobs. Crown representative David Brierwood also reportedly worked as a director at Greensill Capital. Questions were also raised about how Greensill himself had been given a pass to No.10 in 2012 despite having no official job.
Greensill Capital specialised in supply-chain finance and Cameron lobbied HM Treasury extensively in early 2020, presenting the company as a provider of solutions to pressures posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Greensill Capital had liabilities of £1.6bn when it went down in March 2021. At the time it was providing the Department of Health and Social Care with an early-payment scheme for pharmacies and had also been marketing a salary-advance scheme to some NHS trusts via its Earnd subsidiary.
The same month, Greensill Capital Pty Ltd entered administration in Australia, before going into liquidation in April 2021. Both businesses were part of the wider Greensill Group.
Lex Greensill, aged 49, was due to go on trial next week for failings that amount to a breach of his legal duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence as a company director under the Companies Act 2006.
However, the Insolvency Service said today that Greensill has signed a “disqualification undertaking” agreement to end court action in relation to his disqualification as a company director.
The agreement, signed by business secretary Peter Kyle, will see Greensill banned from serving as a company director in the UK for nine years, effective from 23 June.
Insolvency Service chief executive Duncan Beach said director disqualifications exist to protect the public from those who have demonstrated they are unfit to run companies.
“A nine-year ban is a significant period – above the average for director disqualifications – and reflects the serious nature of Lex Greensill’s conduct,” he said.
“The Insolvency Service has ambitious plans to be recognised as the UK’s leading authority in enforcing corporate and insolvency standards. Director disqualifications are an important tool in helping us achieve our goals.
“Through securing more impactful disqualifications in the months and years to come, we will continue to protect the public and safeguard the marketplace from those directors whose conduct makes them unfit to be involved in the management of companies.”