9.00am: Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of Asil Nadir's return to the UK to face multimillion-pound fraud charges dating back nearly two decades.
Having fled our shores in 1993, the former boss of Polly Peck flying back to Luton this morning. From there, he's expected to move into a luxury Mayfair apartment - but he will soon be summoned to the Old Bailey for the start of a long-awaited court case.
We'll be bringing you all the action, and explaining exactly what happened all those years ago.
9.08am: As I type, Nadir has already started his journey back home. Turkish carrier Onur Air has loaned him and his entourage an A320 Airbus airliner, and he's flown from North Cyprus to Antalya in Turkey. He'll be waiting there for a while - under European rules, you can't fly from North Cyprus to the EU without pausing in Turkey.
9.13am: For a fugitive returning to judgement, the 69-year-old Nadir certainly sounds to be in good spirits. He's already been giving some interviews, telling The Times that:
I am very happy that what I have been striving for for many years is finally coming to fruition — to be able to go to England without any unnecessary threat of arrest and to be given the chance to put my case.
The Times crime editor Sean O'Neill has also taken a great picture of Nadir on the flight - unfortunately its behind their paywall - but he looks pretty tanned and relaxed.
9.21am: Given the length of time Nadir has been abroad, it might be helpful to run through exactly who he is. So for the benefit of younger or more forgetful readers......
....Asil Nadir was a major player in the City in the 1980s and early 1990s. He took a small east London textile firm called Polly Peck, and through a series of takeovers and canny deals he turned it into a serious conglomerate. It owned a slice of the Del Monte fruit canning brand, a majority stake in Japanese electronics company Sansui, and also owned companies making colour televisions and Betamax video recorders.
All very impressive, and shareholders flocked to his side. If you bought into Polly Peck early enough, in 1980 say, you could turn a £1,000 investment into £1m - a huge return even fro the standards of the champagne-soaked Square Mile in the days after the Big Bang.
But to cash in, you had to know when to sell.
The downturn started when Nadir tried, and failed, to take Polly Peck off the FTSE 100 and back into private ownership. The party was really over when the Serious Fraud Office raided the company that ran his family's financial affairs, called South Audley Management. Six weeks later, the administrators had been called in.
The UK authorities moved with their traditional speed, and it was just three short years later that Nadir was facing the prospect of 66 charges of theft and false accounting involving £34 million. Instead, he hopped on a flight to Paris, and was soon in Northern Cyprus - a territory with which Britain does not have an extradition treaty.
There he has stayed. Until today.
9.33am: As well as being another example of the City's grubbier side, the Nadir case also has major, and Major, political implications. At his height, Nadir donated £500,000 to the Conservative party, so his flight was an embarrassment to the party (just a year after the Black Wednesday fiasco).
John Major's goverment was further bruised after it emerged that Conservative minister Michael Mates had generously given Nadir a watch engraved: "Don't let the buggers get you down".
To Nadir's credit, he clearly hasn't.
9.41am: So why's Nadir back? We've long known that he was missing Britain, and Northern Cyprus hasn't exactly been an idylic retreat (Nadir fell out with the ruling party, and ended up lobbying for a settlement for the long-standing Cypriot partition).
There are also rumours that he had hammered out some kind of deal with the Serious Fraud Office. This is generally denied by all sides, though. Back in 2003, Nadir filed a court challenge, claiming that he could not receive a fair trial. In response, the SFO argued that if Nadir wanted to use Britain's legal machinery then he'd better get himself back in the country.
So much time has now elapsed, though, that hardly anyone who worked on the original case is still involved. Is this Nadir's cunning plan? Return to Britain, put on an electronic tag, and then persuade the judges that it was all 'just business'?
9.48am: Nadir's A320 Airbus airliner has taken off from Turkey after its scheduled stop, and is now wizzing towards Luton. Touchdown is expected around noon.
It sounds like he's got plenty of room to stretch his legs - the plane is only carrying 17 passengers including Mr and Mrs Nadir, three bodyguards and two lawyers (from London's Bark & Co).
9.51am: Nadir insists that he is the innocent party in this whole affair, who was forced to travel to Northern Cyprus to "recuperate" from the litany of injustices that had put his life at risk.
He told the Today Programme that:
"I have been making an effort since the second day that I departed from England to ensure that there was the right environment for me to come to Britain with a view to pursue the injustices that I was suffering.""So I feel the environment now is correct."
Does that mean that a deal has been secretly done? Nadir denies it, and also argues that he's not even a fugitive from justice. Technically, the law lords have ruled that his bail had lapsed when he popped overseas (a ruling that meant the pilot who flew him was released from prison).
You can listen to the whole interview here.
10.05am: Sky News has got a great line - Nadir isn't ruling out donating to the Conservative Party again.
"It's only fair if you approve of the policies of a Government, if you want to extend their power, why not do it? It's not criminal, it's allowed."
Having been abroad so long, Nadir may not be fully up to speed with the Electoral Commission rules. Among other restrictions, you can only make a donation if you pay tax in the UK.
The high court trial isn't expected to start until 2012 (assuming it ever starts at all), so he's got plenty of time to qualify.
10.20am: There's not much official reaction to Nadir's return, but there's the usual buzz on Twitter.
Paul Kelso, the Daily Telegraph chief sports reporter, is having flashbacks:
"Asil Nadir on the news, tory chancellor under fire over 'unfair' budget... I must be getting my A-level results soon"
Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror smells a political angle:
"Can't help noticing Asil Nadir comes and goes(or more accurately goes and comes) under the Tories"
Looking beyond Fleet Street, operations director David Hallam sees a link with today's Telegraph revelations that you can sit next to a government minister if you pay enough:
"$1000 for a dinner with a conservative government minister - more sleaze! Maybe that's why Azul Nadir Polly Peck is coming back!"
10.40am: Sean O'Neill, the Times crime editor, is aboard Nadir's plane and has been tweeting on the @TimesCrime account (although he's gone quiet since the plane left Turkey - maybe there's no in-flight Wi-Fi?).
Apparently the atmosphere is quite surreal, with all those empty seats.
Our own Adam Gabbatt is also hot-footing it to Luton to watch Nadir's landing. He'll be tweeting here, and reporting all the action once it kicks off.
Also on Twitter, Matthew Rudd has tweeted a ribald joke cracked by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop in 1993:
"Asil Nadir coming back? His flight led to Michael Mates quitting the Govt. As Ian Hislop put it: "Appropriate name - a prick in a cover-up."
On the Michael Mates point: when he resigned in 1993 the former minister said he was doing so in the interests of the then Government, and has denied any impropriety on his part.
Incidentally, I preferred the News Quiz gag from the year, which went along the lines of: "The police went to the businessman's home to arrest him, but were greeted by his housekeeper. 'Is Azil in?' they asked. 'No, he's Nadir', she replied."
Funnier when delivered by the great (late) Barry Took. Honest.
11.03am: As my colleagues Helen Pidd and Mark Tran point out this morning, Nadir had risen to 39th on the Sunday Times Rich List, owned a string of luxury properties in Britain, an island in the Aegean and a dozen racehorses. He was also a major Tory party donor, a frequent guest at Downing Street, and was friends with the royal family.
Upon his return, though, he'll have to wear an electronic tag and post £250,000 of bail.
11.23am: This just in from Adam Gabbatt.
I've just spoken to Luton airport press office. They say Nadir will arrive on the 'main landing apron' at the airport at 12.45pm. He is expected to get into a car straight from the aircraft, and will be driven out through a separate gate normally used for the transit of cargo, some distance from the main airport terminal.
A lot of shareholders lost money when Polly Peck fell off its perch. Will any of them be there for the great Nadir homecoming?
11.32am: My colleague Andrew Sparrow has sent me this from Westminster:
Most people would find it difficult to recall the precise details of the Asil Nadir affair, but at Westminster people do remember Michael Mates's famous words of advice to the businessman: "Don't let the buggers get you down." Mates's support for Nadir led to his resignation as a Northern Ireland minister (although he denied any impropriety on his part).
According to one report, Mates thought Nadir was the victim of an MI6 plot. This morning the Today programme played an extract from Mates's resignation statement. It was gripping stuff, because Betty Boothroyd, the Speaker, tried to get him to shut up, because she was worried that he would say something that would breach the Commons's sub judice
rules. I've just been reading the full speech in Hansard. Mates told MPs that the Serious Fraud Office had applied "quite improper pressure" on the judge dealing with Nadir's case.
And here's a few useful links:
Mates's resignation as a Northern Ireland minister.
Mates thought Nadir was the victim of an MI6 plot (from the Independent).
You can also hear the Boothroyd-Mates exchange on the Today Programme's site (scroll to 2:17m).
11.45pm: We've been going back through the archive, looking how we reported the Polly Peck affair at the time.
You can read the full Observer story in our Digital Archive (subscription needed)
11.52pm: And here's another piece from the Observer (also in the Digital Archive)
12.08pm: Adam Gabbatt has boarded a Luton airport bus and is on his way to the patch of tarmac where Nadir will land.
Apparently things are pretty quiet so far. The bus driver has "never heard" of Nadir, alas, but a family returning from Romania certainly remember him - and aren't too impressed to hear that the tycoon will be checking into a Mayfair house.
Over to Adam:
"I'm on the bus, and have just spoken to Peter Bates, 61, who's just back from 12 days in Romania with four members of his family. He saw that Asil Nadir was returning today on TV screens in the airport and could "just about" recall him leaving 17 years ago. "I didn't know he was coming back," Bates said, "But if he's suspected of a crime he should be taken into custody on arrival and taken to court - I thought that's how the legal system worked in this country."
12.28pm: More information from Luton - around 25 members of Her Majesty's Press Corp have gathered to watch Asil Nadir return home.
Here's a picture from Adam (you can see the original here). Frankly I've seen more excited crowds, but it is a wet and miserable August day.
12.35pm: And we're just hearing that Nadir's flight will not arrive at 12.45pm as expected. Instead, it's been delayed until 1.33pm. More from Adam Gabbatt of Luton:
The plane will land within sight of us here, and will be met by a car, which Nadir will get in and drive straight out of Gate 9, where I'm stood. His documents will be processed on the plane, a Luton airport spokeswoman has just said. I asked her why the plane had been delayed for almost 50 minutes: "Headwinds, that sort of thing, nothing untoward," she said.
12.43pm: I just had a quick chat with the Serious Fraud Office. They've not saying too much about Nadir's return. As a spokesman put it: "We now proceed to the court hearings on the third of September".
The SFO is the prosecutor in that case, of course, and played a key role in hammering out the bail conditions under which Nadir has returned.
12.50pm: My colleague in the City department, Simon Bowers, has provided this detailed analysis of the situation:
The SFO's current director Richard Alderman is a very pragmatic man — overly so, many former SFO prosecutors would argue. He has shown no hesitation in killing off other long-running investigations and is openly critical of what he sees as the sprawling, overly-complicated prosecutions pursued in the past. Not everyone agrees with his approach but he is unquestionably, by instinct, a deal-maker.
This is important. Alderman is the man charged with making the call on what the realistic prospect of a successful prosecution of Nadir might be — and whether a costly trial would be in the public interest.
The initial theft indictment against Nadir, which I think still technically stands, includes more than 60 counts. Given the lapse of time since then, I would imagine that Alderman will drop many of these at the first opportunity, most likely at a case management hearing at the Old Bailey on September 3.
In some ways I am surprised that Alderman, ever the pragmatist, has not already indicated an intention to drop all counts given the lapse of time since the alleged offences. He must surely have in his mind the image of a long and complex jury trial during which witnesses are grilled on events of which they cannot reasonably be said to have full recollection.
How many times might Nadir, should he chose to take the stand, reply "I can't remember". Even prosecution witnesses, those that are still alive, will doubtless find themselves similarly straining to recall their thinking of almost 20 years ago in forensic detail.
This will almost certainly be a major thrust of an inevitable "application to dismiss" to be advanced by Nadir's legal team.
On the face of it, such a "passage of time" argument looks extremely compelling. Clearly, however, Alderman at this stage thinks otherwise, suggesting he believes there remains a powerful evidential picture which has not faded over the years. Had such determination to "get their man" been shown by some of his predecessors one might have speculated - perhaps unfairly - that decision-making was clouded by vendetta.
The spectre of the Nadir case has haunted the SFO for much of its existence. It certainly appears strangely appropriate that this long-standing nemesis returns just as the agency looks set to be folded into a wider economic crime unit, incorporating elements of the FSA and OFT.
1.10pm: My colleague Owen Bowcott has done a piece on how Nadir's finances have captured the media's interest for decades. Here's a flavour:
In 1983, the share price hit a high of £35 before crashing on rumours circulating that the Turkish authorities were about to withdraw tax concessions. By 1990, the share price had recovered to 450p, valuing the company at £2bn.That vacillation between extraordinary wealth and plummeting share price attracted more questions about the source of the firm's profits and its corporate structure.
1.13pm: More news from Luton Airport from Adam Gabbatt, where there are now 30 journalists standing in the rain:
Nadir now due at 1.17pm. A Jaguar is on its way to pick him up we've just been told. It will be escorted onto the airstrip by a special branch police car, but it's not clear if the police will then escort the former fugitive to his next destination.
Obviously we'd been hoping to hear a few words from Nadir, but it sounds like he might make (another) rapid getaway.
1.21pm: Nadir's jet has just touched down as I type. Immigration officials are heading to the plane, to check the documents he is travelling on.
1.25pm: Here's a picture of the Jaguar waiting to take Nadir away from Luton - looks like a fairly luxurious way of returning to the UK.
1.29pm: The word from Luton is that Nadir will not have to travel through the usual passport and baggage-handling farrago. His plane has just taxied towards the main airport building, but the immigration officials are about to climb up the portable steps to process him on the flight.
Those officials are also expected to take his papers off him, which should prevent him from leaving Britain again until the case is finally resolved.
1.34pm: Adam Gabbatt reports that the police presence around Luton has increased over last few minutes. There are now at least three police cars at the gate where Nadir expected to exit.
1.45pm: So, we're all looking at the A320, while Luton officials flit around.
Sean O'Neill of The Times (who is on the flight, along with Sky's Kay Burley), just revealed on Twitter that there was a "moment of farce as Nadir is asked to get back on plane to await passport officials."
After 17 long years, clearly Asil Nadir is eager to get back on British soil.
1.48pm: And finally Asil Nadir is coming down off the plane, followed by the rest of the passengers. Seems to be going straight into the Jag....
1.49pm: ...and they're off! Heading for Gate 9, we think. The car is accompanied by a police escort - four police cars were gathered around the jet. Adam Gabbatt reports that there were a couple of police search labradors in attendance, but there weren't any plans to search Nadir's vehicle.
Plenty of interest in the case on Twitter, including this tweet from @kateweb.
"Apparently Asil Nadir is "being closely followed by Kay Burley". Sounds like we're skipping straight to punishment before trial."
2.00pm: And that's it. Nadir's Jag and police escort just shot past the waiting media and away. There was a bit of haranguing from photographers and our man Adam Gabbatt, who grabbed this snap of the action. The blacked out windows prevented us seeing much, alas.
Next stop Mayfair, followed by the courts on 3 September.....
In the meantime, you can enjoy Hugh Muir writing about Nadir's early days in Cyprus, and the time that The Sun and The Daily Star fought to save a goat that was destined to be slaughtered in his honour.
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