Businessman has two weeks to pay record £76m fine

The former chief executive of a failed investment firm has been given just over two weeks to pay a record £76m fine by the City regulator.

The Financial Conduct Authority formally imposed the huge fine on Stewart Ford yesterday over his role in one of the UK’s largest investment scandals. He must find the funds to pay the penalty in full by 1 February.

The former chief executive of the so-called “death bond” company Keydata lost a long legal battle against the penalty, the highest ever handed down to an individual by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Tens of thousands of UK investors lost out after putting almost £450m into so-called “death bond” policies via the investment firm, which was dissolved in 2014 after being declared insolvent and breaking tax rules.

The FCA announced Ford had also been banned from working in regulated financial services, with effect from today.

READ MORE: Patisserie Valerie says fraud more extensive than first thought

Mark Owen, the former sales director of Keydata, was fined more than £3.2m and faces a similar ban.

Thousands of often elderly British people invested in Keydata, with many losing out in one of the biggest personal investment scandals the UK has seen in decades.

The FCA said the firm had sold complex products using misleading brochures and without sufficient due diligence, while Ford himself was able to extract around £73.3m from the scheme.

It said in a statement accompanying the fine today that Ford had failed to act with integrity, and failed to deal with the FCA in an open and cooperative way between 2005 and 2009.

Ford said after the tribunal last year that its decision to uphold the fine was a “grave injustice.” He told the Financial Times: “My honour, my good name, my competence and my integrity have been impugned.

“The way they have painted me is like the pantomime villain in this and it is unacceptable.”