Posted at 01:12 pm EST, Mon December 1, 2008

Pannone Facing £50m Lawsuit

Tags: Current Affairs, News

The Manchester firm is being sued for up to £50m in damages for allegedly allowing disgraced Manchester businessman Shaid `Lucky’ Luqman to continue running his failed property leasing company, Lexi Holdings. In 2006 Mr Luqman, from Hale, was named as one of the richest people in the country, with a personal fortune of around £250m.

Two years ago Mr Luqman’s company went into administration with more than £100m of debts. Now the joint administrators, Brian Green and Richard Fleming of KPMG have filed a High Court claim against Pannone, suggesting that they must have known Mr Luqman was at fault in placing Lexi Holding’s assets at risk. The administrators are claiming against Pannone for breach of contract and professional negligence.

This is a fairly hefty claim for a firm of Pannone’s size; to put it in perspective, Pannone’s turnover for this year was approximately £50m.

Pannone strongly denies the claims and is expected to file a defence case within weeks. According to the Manchester Evening News Pannone’s managing partner, Steven Grant, said: "We have received a speculative claim that we regard as wholly without merit. It is being dealt with by our insurers."

Luqman’s shady past…

Mr Luqman has been in trouble with authorities before and even served some jailtime for deception 15 years ago. In a previous murky episode  he was described by High Court judge Mr Justice Patten as `completely dishonest’. In that instance which was only a few weeks before Lexi Holdings went into administration, Mr Luqman was disqualified from acting as a company director for 15 years, following proceedings relating to another of his companies, Modern Living UK.

He was jailed in July last year after being found in contempt of court by a High Court judge having failed to respond properly to High Court orders won by KPMG over his assets and company records.

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10 Responses

  1. anon

    Posted 1:20 pm on December 1st, 2008 1

    Wonder if their PII will stretch to that?

  2. anon

    Posted 1:21 pm on December 1st, 2008 2

    Wouldn’t think so.

  3. GordonB

    Posted 1:26 pm on December 1st, 2008 3

    deals, deals crunchy deals….

    now the fallout.

  4. cynic

    Posted 1:32 pm on December 1st, 2008 4

    Maybe they should redistribute his assets to help recapitalise the UK’s balance sheet - every little helps.

  5. anon

    Posted 3:36 pm on December 1st, 2008 5

    That could be pretty serious for Pannone if it is anything less than ‘wholly without merit’.

  6. Tony

    Posted 2:30 pm on December 3rd, 2008 6

    I think this a bit rich of KPMG and DLA. They went into Lexi in 2003 and discovered what “lucky” was up to, reported it to Barclays who ignored the advice removed the Mangager in charge of lexi and let “lucky” carry on. In fact Barclays then purchased Lloyds share of the syndicate lending so that Lloyds would not rock the boat! Does this then also mean DTZ Valuers will be brought into the action as they valued a white elephant in the sea at £15M….!?
    Wake up Barclays, you messed up and “assisted” in this Faud!

  7. amon

    Posted 1:00 pm on December 20th, 2008 7

    Law firms are not immune to Greed!, this firm is one majorly greedy firm, making money any which way! however fairness to Panone apart from greed there was no negligence, the only negligence is by KPMG and DLA and allowing Barclays to rack up costs of £30 Million, after hounding Luqman for over 2 years and making false allegations and claims they have firmly been kicked into touch by him who has fought them in every corner and every jurisdiction and kicking their corrupt lawyers here and in Pakistan firmly firmly into oblivion! they had no idea who they were up against and have now been thaught a valuable lesson.
    Barclays bought out Lloyds as after audits by KPMG and PWC and PKF and KLSA and Barclays internal audit they new this was a clean and succesful bussiness and wanted to reap the benefits of the compnay’s growth and make huge fees. the claim against Pannone is not only fanciful but also desperation by Brian Green of KPMG and Paul fleming of DLA to save their backsides being kicked to mars after they complete fuck up in screwing uo LEXI !

  8. mcgaw

    Posted 8:38 pm on February 15th, 2009 8

    DLA Piper, Paul Fleming of the london office has been told his days at the firm are numbered after one of the largest corporate mismanagement, that of Lexi Holdings Plc and the personal vandetta against shaid Luqman, total expense of the administration have now exceeded £30 Million with no recovery what so ever from Luqman,Judgements obtained in default have been thrown out by the High Court in Pakistan as having been obtained against natural justice leaving nowhere for Fleming to turn to!
    Barclays have been funding proceedings against Luqman knowing full well there was no merit in the allegations, the Qatri Investment Board who have shored Barclays by £5 Billion are now seriously concerned with the ethics adopted by Barclays, and have indicated no further funds will be available.

  9. justin

    Posted 8:06 pm on March 15th, 2009 9

    Dale Sellers has been warned by barclays chief to rap up the Lexi Holdings proceedings after clocking up costs of £35 Million after making a complete fuck up by placing Lexi in Administration. Dale has been told to reapply for his position, together with 25 others and not to hold his breath in keeping his position after the biggest loss due to one individuals bad judgement.
    his superiors have told him to leave quietly through the back door or be kicked out the front!
    about time this Yorkshire idiot was given his marching orders!

  10. amon

    Posted 12:36 pm on June 27th, 2009 10

    MCGAW, dont you work for Pannone…….and were you not involved in the Ten Acre “Deal”?? TUT TUT.


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