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JJB’s ex-boss Chris Ronnie jailed

Dec 15, 2014 at 11:35 am in Market Commentary by contrarianuk

chris ronnie

After the recent allegations of inappropriate supplier payments at Tesco which significantly flattered profits at the troubled company, today it was announced that Chris Ronnie, the former chief executive of JJB Sports, had gone one better by personally taking nearly £1 million from the company’s suppliers before it went bust in 2012.

Ronnie is now facing four years in prison for fraud, after benefiting from the payments and buying property in Florida with the proceeds behind the back of the other board members who were unaware of the transactions. At the time of the payments Ronnie was in debt to the tune of £11 million to Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank, in connection with his acquisition of a 30% stake in the retailer.

He ran the sports wear retailer between August 2007 and March 2009. This marks an unusual victory for the Serious Fraud Office which has been plagued by high profile failures in court including the £1.5 million settlement with Robbie Tchenguiz in July 2014 for wrongful arrest after a dawn raid on his home in March 2011 in connection with the collapse of Kaupthing.

The SFO seems to have got their man this time but it makes you wonder if Ronnie’s behaviour is a one-off event or if other retailers have dubious activity behind the scenes. If the likes of FTSE 100 giant, Tesco, can uncover a £250 million accounting irregularity, once a new CEO arrives on the scene, who else has been putting their hands in the till for their own personal gain through dodgy relationships?

Contrarian Investor UK

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