Managing Fraud Risk: A Practical Guide for Directors and Managers

Making me an Offer that I can't Refuse

“I have a proposition for you, Steve.” It is October 1990 and I am sitting in an office close to Fleet Street in the heart of London. My boss, one of the senior partners of the accounting firm Touche Ross (now known as Deloitte) has asked to see me. He is in the process of outlining the events surrounding the headline corporate scandal that has featured so prominently in the media in recent weeks. He tells me that there has been a significant development in the High Court today that is likely to have important implications for the firm and, if I am interested, for me too. I am listening.

My boss is a small, dapper man with forthright views and little small talk. He assumes that I am aware of the headlines concerning the rumours and events surrounding the high-flying and hitherto very successful international company Polly Peck International Plc (“Polly Peck”), which has seen the company's share price, quoted on the London Stock Exchange, collapse in recent days. I simply nod. He then brings me up to date with the latest news: the directors have been removed and we are to investigate what had been going on. I look surprised so he explains further. He has just learned that the High Court has agreed to an application from the company's directors and creditors to place Polly Peck in “administration”, a legal arrangement whereby the company's affairs will be reorganised and an orderly disposal of its assets made for the benefit of all the creditors. ...