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FRC imposes £378,184 fine and temporary ban on King & KingThe Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced a four‑year investigation result that sees the tiny audit firm King & King and its managing partner Milankumar Patel fined a total of £378,184, issued a “severe reprimand”, and placed serious restrictions on future audit work. Audit shortcomings across 140 GFG Alliance accountsBetween 2018 and 2020 the firm signed off on more than 140 audits for entities within Sanjeev Gupta’s metals empire, including Liberty Specialty Steels, Alvance British Aluminium, Liberty Steel Newport and Liberty Performance Steels. The FRC found the firm failed to identify clear self‑interest and breached core audit requirements such as planning, risk assessment, and going‑concern evaluations. Financial penalties and revenue‑dependency figures£378,184 total fine and disgorgement of fees.GFG‑related work accounted for nearly 41% of King & King’s 2021 revenue.Auditors are prohibited from earning more than 15% of revenue from a single client; the FRC has clarified that the cap applies to groups of entities with the same beneficial owner. Implications for audit independence and UK corporate governanceThe case underscores the risk that heavy fee reliance on a single corporate group can erode audit objectivity. The FRC’s “egregious” label and the imposed sanctions send a clear message that the audit profession must maintain independence, especially when dealing with high‑profile conglomerates such as GFG Alliance, which is already under investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office. Future regulatory tightening and industry responseFollowing the penalties, the FRC is expected to tighten its revenue‑cap rules and increase oversight of audit firms serving related‑party groups. Industry observers predict a wave of compliance reviews and a possible rise in audit fees as firms adjust to stricter independence standards.

The Ban on Lex Greensill Lex Greensill, the disgraced former financier, has been banned from running a UK company for nine years following the 2021 collapse of his £1.6bn supply chain invoicing firm, Greensill Capital. The Collapse of Greensill Capital Greensill Capital collapsed into administration in March 2021 with liabilities of more than £1.6bn. The firm's collapse led to a significant financial scandal, involving former Prime Minister David Cameron and Japanese investor Masayoshi Son. The Insolvency Service's Findings The Insolvency Service found that Greensill breached his legal duty to exercise reasonable care, skill, and diligence as a company director, causing a loss of $440m to Credit Suisse. Greensill directed his companies to enter transactions that removed legal protections from loan notes, despite lacking the required written consents. The Impact of the Collapse The collapse of Greensill Capital caused chaos for companies owned by Sanjeev Gupta's Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance, which had relied heavily on Greensill financing. The UK's Serious Fraud Office is investigating suspected fraud, fraudulent trading, and money laundering related to GFG's financing arrangements with Greensill Capital. The Future Outlook Greensill still faces a separate civil action by administrators for Greensill Capital (UK), in which he is named as a defendant. The nine-year ban on Greensill running UK companies reflects the serious nature of his conduct and serves as a warning to other company directors.

UK officials have entered exclusive talks with a Norwegian startup, Blastr, to buy the former Liberty Steel works in South Yorkshire, in a significant step towards its rescue. Blastr, owned by Vanir Green Industries, a Norwegian investor in renewable industries, is understood to be the bidder preferred by the government’s official receiver to take on ownership of the UK’s largest existing electric arc furnace in Rotherham and other works in Stocksbridge, both in South Yorkshire.The business, formally named Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), has been under the official receiver’s control since August, after the previous owner Sanjeev Gupta lost ownership in London’s high court. Finding a new buyer would remove a headache for the government, which also a year ago took control of the Chinese-owned British Steel blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.Blastr is run by Mark Bula, who has worked for and run large steel businesses in India and the US. The company does not yet operate any steel plants, although it is developing a site in Finland to use green hydrogen to produce iron and steel. It is likely to have to secure financing to take on the SSUK sites in South Yorkshire, but it would allow them to progress rapidly.Union officials welcomed the news after employees were informed. Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, a former steelworker and a national secretary of the GMB union, said Liberty Steel workers “have been at the sharp end of years of uncertainty at this point – this needs to be a deal that secures the long-term future of steelmaking in South Yorkshire”. She added: “Any sale of SSUK must include due diligence which guarantees ongoing operations and stability of the sites.”