Paul Taylor, the former CEO of Blue Horizon Asset Management (BHAM), has been banned from working in financial services and fined almost £500,000 over false claims in bids to buy a UK bank and football club Reading FC.
The Financial Conduct Authority also banned the firm's former managing director, Esmeralda Toni, for serious misconduct. The financial services watchdog imposed fines of £489,000 on Taylor and £121,200 on Toni. The regulator found that, while attempting to buy a UK bank in 2023, Taylor "falsified, or arranged to be falsified" documents claiming that he held a bond portfolio valued at about €200m (£171m). Toni was said to have assisted him by making misleading statements to the bank, as well as by helping falsify these. Both Tony and Taylor understood that it was likely that th...
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