London Capital & Finance investors chase Tory cash

Administrators to the collapsed bond firm London Capital & Finance on Thursday said they may attempt to recoup more than £50,000 which one of the men arrested over the firm’s demise gave to the Conservative Party.

Finbarr O’Connell, administrator at Smith & Williamson, said if it can be proved that the money donated by Simon Hume-Kendall stemmed from LCF’s 11,600 bondholders, they would be demanding the party pays the money back.

LCF collapsed in January, leaving its largely elderly list of bondholders facing losing nearly all of the £236 million they had invested.

Hume-Kendall is the wealthy businessman who originally founded the firm which was later renamed as LCF.

He was named today alongside LCF’s chief executive Andrew Thomson as being one of four men arrested as part of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the affair.

O’Connell said if it could be proved the funds stemmed from bondholders “I will write to the Conservative Party on the bondholders’ behalf… and ask for it back.”

Hume-Kendall declined to comment. Sources close to him say the funds came from his personal wealth rather than company funds.

Electoral Commission records show Hume-Kendall gave seven party donations between October 2017 and January 2019, all in cash except two payments totalling £6,400 in the form of sponsorship.

The biggest borrower from LCF, an oil investment company called London Oil & Gas, was run by Hume-Kendall and collapsed into administration earlier this week.

LoG borrowed £123 million from LCF.

Companies House records show LoG’s holding company London Group LLP also borrowed from LCF.

Deeds for the loan were signed by Hume-Kendall and fellow London Group director Elten Barker and LCF chief executive Thomson.

O’Connell has said that all but £40 million of the £236 million of LCF bondholders’ money is probably unrecoverable.

The SFO has said four people were arrested in Kent and Sussex and released pending further investigation. No charges have been filed.