The steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is being prosecuted by Companies House for failing to file accounts for more than 70 companies listed in Britain.
Gupta, who was once described as “the saviour of steel” when he began rescuing failing British steelworks in 2017, is facing enforcement action from the UK’s business register for the late filing, which could result in a fine or being disqualified as a director.
The latest prosecution comes as the Gupta Family Group Alliance (GFG), the collection of companies headed by Gupta, remains subject to a criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into suspected fraud linked to the collapse of its main lender Greensill Capital in 2021.
The Companies House enforcement, which was first reported by the Financial Times, relates to 76 Gupta-linked companies, including Liberty Commodities, the trading company founded by Gupta, and those linked to his Liberty Steel plants.
Companies House confirmed it was taking enforcement action but did not comment further. Gupta has pleaded not guilty.
The 53-year-old, who was born in India and studied at Cambridge, made his fortune in trading commodities before buying up struggling steel businesses in the UK and around the world through his GFG empire.
GFG employs more than 30,000 people across 30 countries and includes the Liberty Steel Group, which owns several steel manufacturing and rolling plants in places such as Rotherham, Newport and Scunthorpe.
In 2021, the company was thrown into financial crisis after its main lender Greensill Capital – which was founded by the Australian entrepreneur Lex Greensill – went bust. The collapse revealed that Greensill had lent £400m to companies owned or linked to Gupta, using the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS), which benefited from an 80% government guarantee.
This resulted in the SFO opening a criminal investigation into the financing of Gupta’s metals empire, including its links to Greensill Capital, in April 2021. The anti-corruption agency said at the time that it suspected fraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering related to the financing of GFG.
It is understood that the SFO investigation, which is ongoing, has affected GFG’s ability to appoint new auditors.
The Companies House enforcement also includes directors Iain Hunter, Deepak Sogani, Jeffrey Kabel and Jeffrey Stein. All four directors have pleaded not guilty. The quartet were recruited in May 2021 as “specialist board directors” aimed at “helping the company navigate the Greensill collapse”.
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A GFG Alliance spokesperson said on behalf of the four directors and Gupta: “There are no underlying issues with our accounts and directors have taken all reasonable steps to resolve the situation. We have finalised unaudited accounts for our UK businesses and have been in regular communication with Companies House. This legal process has no effect on any of our operations.”
The next hearing for the Companies House case is scheduled for January 2025, with no date set for a trial.
On Wednesday, the Telegraph reported that the billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal was suing over £117m in “deferred compensation”, which he claims he is owed from the sale of several European factories to GFG Alliance five years ago.
GFG Alliance told the Telegraph: “This is a long-running commercial dispute relating to contested deferred consideration from 2019, which GFG is challenging through legal means.”