Man in his 40s was taken to a police station in West London
The Serious Fraud Office has made an arrest in the Arena TV fraud investigation.
A man in his 40s was arrested and taken to a police station in West London on 16 December, with assistance from the Metropolitan Police.
This isn’t the first time that an arrest has been made in the case, which concerns a former outside broadcast business that administrator Kroll has allegend was involved in a £1.2 billion fraud. Two arrests were made in 2022, neither of whom were owner Richard Yeowart and co-director Robert Hopkinson, who went missing after the company folded, alongside searching three sites. French law enforcement later found Hopkinson, but not Yeowart.
Arena TV suddenly collapsed in November 2021, with administrators Kroll since revealing that the company owed £282 million to 55 lenders. £182 million of that was unsecured, meaning 46 lenders “do not have recourse to any assets”.
The administrator’s report also revealed that Arena TV directors made “the decision to cease trading shortly after” an agent attempted to verify a serial number with an equipment manufacturer. They were told it didn’t exist and then sent a query to the lender about the concern. Court filings made allegations of a complicated fraud system, which you can read the details of here.
Hopkinson and Yeowart went on trial in France last year, with Yeowart trialed in absentia as he was still on the run. The AFP reported at the time that gold bullion, cash, two cars and two homes worth a total of €1.4 million (£1.2m) were seized by police, as well as fake identity cards, counterfeit driving licences, and wigs.
Kroll has sued Lloyds Banking Group and its Bank of Scotland for £285 million, claiming that they allowed the directors to perpetrate a “substantial and wide-ranging fraud” against multiple lenders. According to court documents, of 8,196 assets with loans outstanding against them, only 66 have been verified as existing.
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