Ehsan Tayefi (39), from South West London, was the appointed director of Numex Foreign Exchange Corporation (UK) Ltd.
The company was incorporated in September 2011 and used a foreign exchange platform provided by a major bank to buy foreign currencies on behalf of Numex's customers.
Seven years later in April 2018, the bank that provided Numex's foreign exchange platform gave the company a two-month warning that they would remove their trading facilities.
This caused Numex to enter into administration in June 2018, owing its creditors just over £2 million, before the company entered into liquidation in June 2019.
Numex's insolvency proceedings brought the company to the attention of the Insolvency Service and following further enquiries, investigators uncovered that Numex's bank had warned the foreign exchange broker that maturing trades would show an overdrawn position.
But instead of taking heed, Ehsan Tayefi caused Numex to make a payment of $1.3 million to buy two apartments in Dubai in the name of his relative. This caused Numex to become insolvent.
On 20 February 2020, the Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Ehsan Tayefi for 8 years.
Effective from 12 March 2020, Ehsan Tayefi is is now banned from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.
Dave Elliott, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:
Ehsan Tayefi thought that he could get away with removing more than $1 million to spend on buying foreign properties. But the company's insolvencies proceedings caught up with him and our investigations uncovered his unscrupulous activities to enrich himself at the expense of his creditors
An 8-year ban is a substantial amount of time and will remove Ehsan Tayefi from the business environment, protecting creditors from further abuse.
Notes
Ehsan Tayefi is from South West London and his date of birth is January 1981.
Numex Foreign Exchange Corporation (UK) Ltd (Company number: 07769955)
Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of restrictions.
