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Hunt for E-Clear’s missing £100m turns to Cyprus
Elias Elia, whose credit card company E-Clear went bust with debts of £100 million, was also running a property development company in Cyprus, The Times has learnt.
The administrators BDO have been unable to trace any of the cash, including £35 million owed to the collapsed Scottish travel firm Globespan, and are now checking for links between E-Clear and Mr Elia’s personal assets.
This is expected to include Elian Developments, which claimed to be “one of the biggest development companies in Cyprus” and in which The Times has established that Mr Elia has a big involvement. Elian Developments is one of a number of subsidiaries of the Elian Group and currently advertises its London offices at the same address as E-Clear in Berkeley Square, Mayfair.
It is advertising five developments with 153 properties for sale at up to €615,000 (£540,000) and another two developments yet to be built.
In 2007, the Elian Group issued a press release listing Mr Elia, a Greek Cypriot, as chief executive and claiming that it employed almost 500 people with offices in Cyprus, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Russia. It also listed Constantine Serafim as head of marketing for another subsidiary, Elian Property Developers. Mr Serafim was also the marketing director of E-Clear.
Mr Elia was quoted in the press release on the expansion of the London office of a sister company, Elian Estates. He said: “Cyprus continues to gain in popularity for British property investors and it’s not just the sunshine that’s attracting them.
“With the country’s developed infrastructure, favourable tax regime and increasingly good air links from the UK, Cyprus’ growth and investment potential will continue to outperform many other European destinations.”
The release said that the Elian Group was formed in 2005 and that Elian Developers “offers villas and apartments for sale or rent in the south-eastern coastal region of the country, working alongside its sister company Elian Estates”.
It added: “Investment opportunities are available with two-year rental guarantees of 5 per cent of the purchase price and up to 80 per cent mortgages. With free inspection trips available to qualifying buyers, Elian Estates is poised to show off its extensive property portfolio in Cyprus.” The company’s website now says: “The Elian Group is a group of companies that was originally born out of the proven joint success of Elian Developers and Elian Estates. Today, the Group also includes Elian Property Management and Elian Construction, and also has plans for Elian Travel and Elian Hotels in the near future.”
BDO is calling a meeting of E-Clear creditors this week. They will be asked, in the absence of any money in E-Clear’s bank accounts, to fund further investigations to try to recover their money.
Some may be recoverable from NordFinanz, a German bank in which E-Clear took a 97 per cent shareholding for £15 million. BaFin, the German financial regulator, has ordered the shares be sold, having judged Mr Elia to be an unreliable person to own a German bank.