--- title: "Investigations of GCUK and Lex Greensill's 2026 disqualification" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/greensill-capital-uk-limited/investigations-and-disqualification/ as_of: 2026-10-22 keywords: ["Greensill Capital (UK) Limited","Greensill Capital Pty Limited","Lex Greensill","Greensill Bank AG","supply chain finance","Credit Suisse supply chain finance funds","SoftBank Vision Fund","Katerra","Fairymead notes","GFG Alliance","Sanjeev Gupta","trade credit insurance","BCC Trade Credit","Insurance Australia Limited","CLBILS","British Business Bank","administration","Grant Thornton","director disqualification","Treasury Committee"] --- # Investigations of GCUK and Lex Greensill's 2026 disqualification **Question.** Which authorities investigated Greensill Capital (UK) Limited and its directors, and how did the disqualification case against Lex Greensill end? **Answer.** The Insolvency Service began investigating Greensill Capital (UK) Limited (GCUK) and two related UK companies in spring 2022, and in March 2024 the Secretary of State for Business and Trade started proceedings to disqualify Lex Greensill as a director, alleging misconduct over the Katerra transactions, statements to trade credit insurers about the Catfoss financing and what boards were told about the insurance; Lex Greensill disputed the allegations. After the High Court refused a stay and a strike-out, Lex Greensill gave a nine-year disqualification undertaking, accepted on 2 June 2026 and running from 23 June 2026 to 22 June 2035, in which certain facts are not disputed for the purposes of the proceedings only; it is not a court finding. The Financial Conduct Authority told the Treasury Committee in May 2021 that it was investigating; it closed the part concerning Mirabella Advisers LLP in December 2025, having identified no breaches by Mirabella requiring further action, and no outcome of its investigation into GCUK and Greensill Capital Securities Limited appears in the record. ## The Insolvency Service investigation and claim - Analysis: The Insolvency Service investigation began in spring 2022. On 29 April 2022 Ian Wilson, a Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, told Lex Greensill that the Secretary of State had instructed it to investigate Greensill Capital (UK) Limited (GCUK), Greensill Limited and Greensill Capital Management Company (UK) Limited and the conduct of their directors, and on 4 May 2022 it listed the likely areas, including controls on funding receivables, particularly for the Gupta Family Group (GFG), the Katerra participation agreements and GCUK's accreditation for and loans under CLBILS, the government-guaranteed Covid-19 loan scheme; the court later observed that these were areas for investigation, not allegations. On 15 November 2023 the Insolvency Service gave Lex Greensill advance notice, by then concerning GCUK and Greensill Limited only, that it intended to recommend disqualification proceedings, and on 23 February 2024 the Secretary of State served the formal notice of intention to start proceedings under section 16 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. Lex Greensill was given the usual opportunity to offer a disqualification undertaking, an agreement to be disqualified without a court order in which the director does not dispute certain facts for the purposes of the disqualification proceedings only, and did not do so. The Secretary of State then brought proceedings against Alexander David Greensill (Lex Greensill) in the High Court, Insolvency and Companies List, case CR-2024-001426, under section 6 of the Act, which deals with the disqualification of unfit directors of insolvent companies, in the matter of GCUK and Greensill Limited; the claim concerned Lex Greensill's conduct as a director of GCUK, Greensill Limited and their Australian parent, Greensill Capital Pty Limited. [src-005] [src-008] [src-079] - Analysis: The Secretary of State commenced the claim on 7 March 2024 as Part 8 proceedings, the Civil Procedure Rules procedure used for disqualification claims, in which the evidence is filed in writing, and served it on 8 March 2024. It was supported by an affirmation of Insolvency Service investigator Ian Wilson dated 6 March 2024, running to 322 pages and 1,053 paragraphs with about 8,500 pages of exhibits and re-affirmed on 19 December 2024. In the statement of matters in that affirmation the Secretary of State alleged three broad areas of misconduct by Lex Greensill: the Katerra Allegations, concerning transactions with SoftBank Group companies in November and December 2020 and the use of $440m received by GCUK; the Catfoss Allegations, concerning misrepresentations and non-disclosures from September 2018 to trade credit insurers covering finance to Catfoss Renewables Ltd and Catfoss DBT Ltd; and the Insurance non-disclosure Allegations, concerning what the boards of GCUK and Greensill Capital Pty Limited were told about the trade credit insurance from August 2020. The Secretary of State stated that the claim was not based on the alleged misconduct having caused the companies' insolvencies. Lex Greensill disputed the allegations: in July 2024 ICC Judge Mullen, a judge of the Insolvency and Companies Court, recorded in [2024] EWHC 2039 (Ch) that Lex Greensill regarded the Secretary of State's case as unbalanced and unfounded, and was concerned that untested and disputed allegations of a serious nature might be reported in the press without an effective opportunity to rebut them. A six-week trial was fixed to begin in a window from 8 June 2026; the proceedings ended with an undertaking in June 2026, so the allegations were never tried. [src-054] [src-079] [src-005] [src-008] ## Applications to stay and to strike out the claim - Analysis: Two applications by Lex Greensill to halt part of the claim or end it before trial failed. In [2025] EWHC 1380 (Ch), after a hearing on 13 May 2025, Mr Justice Trower dismissed Lex Greensill's application, issued on 30 January 2025, to stay the Catfoss issue pending final judgment in related insurance proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia. Counsel for the Secretary of State had opposed the stay, submitting that a significant number of issues arose in only one of the two sets of proceedings and that the overlap did not mean that the interests of justice required one; the judge found that a stay would cause significant delay and complication without sufficient countervailing case-management benefit. On 18 March 2026, in [2026] EWHC 639 (Ch), the judge dismissed Lex Greensill's application of 18 November 2025 to strike out the disqualification claim or for reverse summary judgment, a decision without trial that a claim has no real prospect of success. The court held that section 6 of the Act does not require proof that the director's conduct caused the company's insolvency, the extent of responsibility being one factor to weigh, and that unfairness in the Insolvency Service's investigation had not been established and was a matter for trial. The Insolvency Service stated that the Court of Appeal refused permission to appeal against that decision. [src-054] [src-005] [src-008] - Analysis: The strike-out judgment also records three further arguments by Lex Greensill. Lex Greensill contended that the section 16 notice of 23 February 2024 fundamentally changed the allegations made in the November 2023 advance notice, including by dropping the allegation that misrepresentations relating to Catfoss invalidated all the trade credit insurance policies and caused insurers to decline claims totalling $4.8 billion, and by adding allegations of breaches of sections 172 and 174 of the Companies Act 2006, the directors' duties to promote the success of the company and to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence. The Secretary of State did not accept this, and Mr Justice Trower found that both notices made essentially the same allegations in the same three areas, calling the description of a fundamental alteration “a substantial exaggeration”. Lex Greensill further contended that the GFG and CLBILS areas identified for investigation in 2022 were dropped from the case in November 2023 for political reasons rather than because the Secretary of State had concluded that there was no legal need to prove a link between Lex Greensill's conduct and the insolvencies, and the solicitor's evidence for Lex Greensill said that the Insolvency Service had then included other allegations that it had not investigated properly. The judgment makes no finding on why the GFG and CLBILS areas were not pursued; it held that the claim did not need to prove that the alleged conduct caused the insolvencies, and the strike-out application was dismissed on 18 March 2026. Finally, Lex Greensill argued that Ian Wilson's affirmation implied, without alleging it, that Lex Greensill had caused the insolvencies, citing its references to BaFin having “gated” part of the US$440 million that GCUK obtained from SoftBank and to GCUK's liquidity and solvency being “in question”. In a witness statement of 14 January 2026 the Secretary of State's solicitor stated that the claim was not mounted on the basis that the alleged misconduct was responsible for the companies' insolvencies, 'not least because it does not need to be', and that the alleged misconduct, if made out, merited an upper-bracket disqualification, a ban in the top band of disqualification periods, of more than ten years up to the fifteen-year maximum. The judge did not accept this complaint, holding that the allegations focused on detriment to noteholders and that the companies' financial position was relevant context even though the Secretary of State did not allege that the misconduct caused the insolvencies. [src-005] ## The June 2026 disqualification undertaking - Analysis: The proceedings ended without a trial. Lex Greensill gave a nine-year disqualification undertaking concerning conduct as a director of GCUK, Greensill Limited and Greensill Capital Pty Limited, which the Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted on 2 June 2026; it ended the court proceedings, in which the six-week trial had been due to begin on 8 June 2026, and the ban took effect on 23 June 2026. As explained above, an undertaking is not a court finding: in it Lex Greensill does not dispute certain facts, for the purposes of the disqualification proceedings only. The Companies House register of disqualified officers records for Alexander David Greensill a disqualification undertaking dated 2 June 2026, running from 23 June 2026 to 22 June 2035, for conduct while acting for the three companies, under section 7 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, the provision under which the Secretary of State may accept an undertaking instead of applying for a court order. While disqualified, Lex Greensill may not act as a director or be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without the court's permission. Announcing the undertaking on 4 June 2026, the Insolvency Service described the conduct as Lex Greensill causing the Katerra transactions of late 2020 and causing or allowing GCUK to use $440 million received in November 2020 for purposes other than redeeming notes held by the Credit Suisse (Lux) Supply Chain Finance Fund, and stated that this breached the duty under the Companies Act 2006 to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence; its chief executive, Duncan Beach, called the nine-year ban above the average for director disqualifications. The announcement therefore rests on the undertaking rather than on any court decision; it describes only the Katerra-related conduct, and the undertaking's own statement of facts is not in the record, so the record does not show whether the Catfoss or insurance non-disclosure allegations were covered. [src-008] [src-009] ## Financial Conduct Authority and Financial Reporting Council investigations - Analysis: On 4 May 2021 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) told the Treasury Committee that it was formally investigating matters relating to GCUK and Greensill Capital Securities Limited (GCSL) and the oversight of GCSL by its principal, Mirabella Advisers LLP, and was cooperating with other UK enforcement and regulatory agencies and overseas authorities. It noted that some press allegations about the circumstances of Greensill's failure were “potentially criminal in nature”, a remark that is not a finding. On 15 December 2025 the FCA announced that it had closed its investigation, opened on 4 May 2021, into Mirabella's oversight of GCSL, an appointed representative (a firm that carries on regulated business under the responsibility of an authorised principal), having identified no breaches by Mirabella requiring further action. Mirabella had applied to cancel its authorisation and, as of 12 September 2025, no longer provided financial services; the FCA reserved the right to review its decision and act if new information came to light, and said that it would continue to work with UK and overseas counterparts on their own enquiries connected to Greensill. No outcome of the FCA investigation into GCUK and GCSL appears in the record. The FCA statement spells the firm's name “Mirabella Advisors LLP”; the Companies House register gives Mirabella Advisers LLP (OC384100), whose register of persons with significant control lists Mirabella Group Holdings Limited (company number 12204258), notified on 11 November 2019, as holding 75% or more of the voting rights and rights to surplus assets and the right to appoint or remove members, interests that Cordium Consulting Group Limited (05963788) held from 6 April 2016 until 11 November 2019. Separately, on 28 June 2021 the Financial Reporting Council announced an investigation into the auditor of GCUK in relation to its audit of GCUK's 2019 financial statements; the Treasury Committee identified the auditor under investigation as Saffery Champness. [src-016] [src-046] [src-089] [src-031] [src-077] ## Sources - [src-005] Court record source · src-005 - [src-008] Insolvency Service news release: Lex Greensill to be disqualified from acting as a company director in the UK for nine years, The Insolvency Service (GOV.UK), 2026-06-04 - [src-079] Judgment: Re Greensill Capital (UK) Limited and Greensill Limited [2024] EWHC 2039 (Ch), The National Archives (Find Case Law), 2024-07-18 - [src-054] Judgment: Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Greensill [2025] EWHC 1380 (Ch), The National Archives (Find Case Law), 2025 - [src-009] Companies House register of disqualified directors: record of Alexander David Greensill, Companies House - [src-016] Letter from the Financial Conduct Authority to the Chair of the Treasury Committee on the regulation of Greensill Capital, 4 May 2021, House of Commons Treasury Committee (published correspondence from the FCA), 2021-05-04 - [src-046] FCA statement on the closure of its investigation into Mirabella Advisors LLP, Financial Conduct Authority, 2025-12-15 - [src-089] Companies House register of persons with significant control of Mirabella Advisers LLP (OC384100), Companies House - [src-031] House of Commons Treasury Committee, Lessons from Greensill Capital, Sixth Report of Session 2021–22 (HC 151), House of Commons Treasury Committee, 2021-07-20 - [src-077] National Audit Office, Investigation into the British Business Bank's accreditation of Greensill Capital (HC 301), National Audit Office, 2021-07-07