Asil Nadir

After paying £5 million in compensation and £2 million owed for legal aid, Nadir was transferred from the United Kingdom to Turkey to complete his sentence; a Turkish court subsequently released him on probation after one night in custody.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

An Old Bailey jury found Nadir guilty of 10 counts of theft involving approximately £29 million misappropriated from Polly Peck and acquitted him of three other counts.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Nadir was sentenced to ten years in prison. The SFO stated that it believed the amounts actually misappropriated might have reached at least £146 million, but explained that modern confiscation rules could not be applied retrospectively to the entire case.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

After seventeen years in Northern Cyprus, Nadir returned to London under bail conditions to answer the outstanding allegations.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Following SFO investigations, Nadir faced numerous counts of theft and false accounting and remained on bail pending trial.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

Person targeted by the proceedings

Serious Fraud Office

Several months before his scheduled trial, Nadir secretly left the United Kingdom by air for Northern Cyprus, a territory with no applicable extradition treaty with London, and remained there for seventeen years.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The Old Bailey case traced a series of transfers of Polly Peck funds into accounts or interests linked to Nadir, used notably to support share purchases and various private expenses.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Polly Peck financial executives sought to improve controls over transfers; trial accounts described resistance from Nadir and a massive concentration of liquidity in Turkish and Cypriot subsidiaries.

Attribution

Directly implicated