Fraud officers swoop on home of Beatties owner in riddle of missing £64 million
Fraud squad officers have searched premises belonging to the man behind the collapsed bid to redevelop Wolverhampton's former Beatties store as part of an investigation into a missing £64 million.
A lawyer acting on behalf of Pragnesh Modhwadia confirmed that the businessman's premises had been searched by officers from the Serious Fraud Office on Tuesday last week.
Eighty officers from the Serious Fraud Office were deployed in a series of nine raids in locations across the south-east of England, and seven arrests were made. Mr Modhwadia was not among those arrested.
Mr Modhwadia is the sole director of SSYS Beatties, which was formed in 2019 to redevelop the landmark building after buying it for £3 million.
He had drawn up plans to turn the building into 300 apartments, with retail use retained for the ground floor. But last month the Express & Star revealed that SSYS had been placed into receivership after defaulting on a loan.
