Carillion finance chief handed 11-year ban

The former finance chief of Carillion has been banned from holding any company directorships for the next 11 years. The punishment meted out to Zafar Khan, who headed Carillion’s finance team for less than a year before the company went bust in early 2018, is among the most severe to have been given to a director, lawyers said. Khan was censured by the government’s Insolvency Service for including “false and misleading financial information” in the company’s annual accounts and various updates to shareholders, “misleading as to the reality of Carillion’s financial performance, positioning and prospects”. Carillion, one of the government’s largest real assets contractors, appeared to be doing well in 2016, reporting an underlying profit of £236m. By the summer of 2017 it had announced £1bn of writedowns and in January 2018 it collapsed with £7bn of liabilities. Khan is the first director to have been punished by the Insolvency Service, which is also seeking bans for Richard Howson, Carillion’s former chief executive, and Richard Adam, Khan’s predecessor, and five other former directors. The Times (£)The FT (£)The Guardian