British Fraud Regulators Raid Polly Peck Offices

Investigators from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office on Tuesday raided the headquarters of Polly Peck International PLC, the troubled British conglomerate.

The Serious Fraud Office, which investigates major corporate crime, said it had conducted an all-day search at the London offices of the conglomerate, which has interests from fruit to electronics.

Asil Nadir, chairman of Polly Peck, denounced the investigators’ tactics and blamed officials for playing a role in his company’s collapse. He said the search was “symptomatic of a new desperation” on the part of the fraud office.

“I have committed no criminal act and, in particular, I have not been involved with any illegal or unauthorized share dealings,” Nadir said in a statement.

The raid was conducted with the knowledge of administrators appointed last week to help Polly Peck sort out its $2.5-billion (1.3-billion pound) debt, a Serious Fraud Office spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman, who wasn’t identified in accordance with office practice.

The raiding party included police officers and fraud office accountants, she said.

The office has not released any details of its investigation. British newspaper reports said the office was looking into an alleged share support operation involving Polly Peck stock.

Control of Polly Peck was handed to court administrators last week after it missed payments on its debt.

The probe appeared to be expanding abroad as the Turkish government decided Tuesday to let investigators carry out their work in Turkey, a key center for the far-flung Polly Peck empire.

The Serious Fraud Office has expanded its probe into alleged trading irregularities in Polly Peck stock, one of Britain’s hottest shares of the 1980s.

The collapse of Polly Peck over the past three months followed a string of costly takeovers and an abortive attempt by Nadir to take the company private in August. The stock nose-dive began in August after the fraud office probe became public.

The probe has been hampered by Polly Peck’s highly complicated corporate structure spread over Britain, Japan, the Middle East and the United States. Its major acquisitions over the past year included Japan’s Sansui electronics and the fresh fruit unit of U.S.-based Del Monte.