Elias Elia, the man behind E-Clear, the failed credit card company that brought down Scotland’s biggest airline, Globespan, is set to have his personal assets frozen as administrators to the company try to account for a hole in its finances said to be worth up to a £100m.
According to a report in today’s Times Elias Elia, was also running a property development company in Cyprus.
BDO, the accountants appointed to run the administration of E-Clear have been unable to trace any of the £100 million, including £35 million owed to the collapsed Scottish travel firm Globespan, and are now checking for links between E-Clear and Mr Elia’s personal assets.
These are expected to include Elian Developers, which claimed to be “one of the biggest development companies in Cyprus” and in which The Times has established that Mr Elia has a big involvement. Elian Developments is one of a number of subsidiaries of the Elian Group and currently advertises its London offices at the same address as E-Clear in Berkeley Square, Mayfair.
In 2007, the Elian Group issued a press release listing Mr Elia, a Greek Cypriot, as chief executive and claiming that it employed almost 500 people with offices in Cyprus, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Russia. It also listed Constantine Serafim as head of marketing for another subsidiary, Elian Property Developers. Mr Serafim was also the marketing director of E-Clear.
The administrators are calling a meeting of E-Clear creditors this week. They will be asked, in the absence of any money in E-Clear’s bank accounts, to fund further investigations to try to recover their money.
Wait…wait….I hear this endless laughter in my head and a voice! Of reason? Possibly. Ohhhh YES! It’s my sense of humour and common sense saying ‘Pardon me, what’s the surprise?” Don’t I feel silly now.
I think that even I could manage to find some trace of £100M. Unless the gentleman concerned had it all in cash (unlikely), it must of at some stage been in a bank account and so was either transferred or withdrawn. So, where was the money last seen and how/when/where was it withdrawn? Am I missing something here?
Did Mr Serafim have any Cherubim working for him in his divine role as marketing director?