The US law firm investigating the diesel emissions scandal at Volkswagen is to examine the conduct of BHS directors in the run-up to the retailer’s collapse.
Jones Day has been hired by FRP Advisory, the BHS joint administrator responsible for winding up the business, to scrutinise transactions by the retailer while it was controlled by Dominic Chappell and Sir Philip Green.
The law firm is a heavyweight in the legal industry and is conducting an internal investigation for VW into how cheat software was installed into its diesel vehicles. The appointment of Jones Day to scrutinise BHS was first reported by Sky News.
BHS collapsed into administration in April, putting 11,000 jobs at risk and leaving a pension deficit of £571m. The last of the company’s 164 shops will close on 20 August, while its flagship store on Oxford Street in London will close this weekend.
The demise of BHS is being investigated by the Insolvency Service, the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Reporting Council. The Serious Fraud Office is also examining whether there are grounds to launch a criminal investigation.
A parliamentary investigation into the collapse of BHS, led by Labour MPs Frank Field and Iain Wright, accused Green of representing the “unacceptable face of capitalism”.
Green and other investors collected £586m in dividends, rent and interest during his family’s 15-year ownership of BHS. He sold the retailer for £1 in March 2015 to Chappell, a serial bankrupt. Chappell’s consortium, Retail Acquisitions, extracted another £17m from BHS before it collapsed this year.
FRP was brought in as the second administrator to BHS by the Pension Protection Fund, the company’s biggest creditor. The PPF did not publicly explain why it wanted another administrator to work with Duff & Phelps, which was initially appointed. However, Chappell claimed to MPs that Duff & Phelps were Green’s “ponies” and “do exactly what Philip tells them to do”. Green denied this.
Duff & Phelps said in its reports to creditors, published in June, that it had identified transactions within BHS that required further investigation.
“During our preliminary investigations there are a number of transactions that on the face of it may require investigation. Additional information is required to understand the true nature of the transactions,” it said.
The chief executive of BHS, Darren Topp, told MPs that Chappell had his “fingers in the till” during his ownership of BHS. In their report, MPs said Green and Chappell had overseen the “systematic plunder” of BHS.
Chappell has claimed that all payments made to Retail Acquisitions were contractually agreed, while Green has said that significantly more was invested in BHS than taken out while he was in charge.
