Executives deny involvement in Arena TV fraud

Former Arena TV finance manager Nicholas Cousins and former Sentinel Broadcast owner Paul Froom have denied involvement in the fraud allegations levelled against the OB company. 

The pair have filed defences in the £285 million lawsuit brought against them by administrator Kroll earlier this year. This is separate from the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the matter, which has so far resulted in two arrests and the search of three sites.

Cousins and Froom filed their defences earlier this month, reports Law360, with the pair offering various explanations for their actions.

Cousins claims that he while he was aware of two undisclosed accounts into which Sentinel allegedly put £1 billion between 2003 and 2021, he did not have access to them and they weren’t visible to him - and he wasn’t involved in their creation. Moreover, he claims that Arena TV director Richard Yeowart, who is yet to be found since the fraud allegations arised, told him that the accounts were run by him and used for repayments of hire-purchase agreements.

Froom admits that he would pay into those accounts, but that he had no knowledge of how Arena reported or dealt with the payments. He said that he can’t “admit or deny” the existence of the fraud conspiracy - full details of which can be found here.

In addition, Cousins alleges that £205,000 that he received from Yeowart was not a “corrupt gift”, and was in fact an incentive to stay at the company after he had become ill and signalled that he wanted to leave.

This news comes as Arena TV moves from administration into voluntary liquidation, with documents filed at Companies House as it moves towards the final stages before it’s fully closed down.