Del Monte's shady history came to my notice in the mid 1990s when the British media became fascinated with the case of a woman found in possession of a large bag of cash. As the Voice of Choice for The BBC and SKY News in relation to money laundering, I was interviewed several times. The thing was, she wasn't charged with money laundering.

As I looked into the background to the case, it became more and more bizarre and it wasn't the woman concerned that was particularly interesting: it was the chap running the group, Asil Nadir. More than a decade later, Nadir would be convicted of fraud having been living in Northern Cyprus to where he fled in 1993 when the Serious Fraud Office announced an investigation into a missing GBP150 million.

Elizabeth Forsyth was charged "on the cusp" of the introduction of counter-money laundering laws, the conduct having taken place before the introduction in the UK of the offence of money laundering, It was alleged not that she was laundering the proceeds of Nadir's fraud but of handling stolen cash. She was convicted and sentenced to five years jail. Her conviction was quashed several months later after the Court of Appeal ruled that the trial judge had misdirected the jury. I agreed: it appeared to me that the Judge had, in effect, adopted the language of counter-money laundering law when talking a stolen chose in action, a subject I have often explained in print and in seminars - a subject which has again become current with the debate (now otiose in my view) as to whether crypto assets can be stolen.  The Serious Fraud Office decided not to prosecute again, although the option was open to them. Meanwhile, Nadir continued his sniping from his island sanctuary.

Nadir had come to own Del Monte through Polly Peck, the group he controlled. Of Lebanese origin, he never fully accounted for where his wealth came from.

In the 1980s, Polly Peck was a relatively small business that found the financing to acquire part of the then financially stable Del Monte. In fact, it had a gross profit margin exceeding 10%.

Del Monte was a victim of the 1980s craze where venture capital funds bought businesses only to break them up and sell their constituent parts. One of those funds, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, widely known today as KK&R, mounted a takeover of the giant US food conglomerate  RJR Nabisco. ]funded by borrowing and bonds, KK&R paid USD35,000 million and sold Del Monte's fresh fruit business for USD6,000 million. . Polly Peck was a small British based trading company and small-time manufacturer, best known in the UK, perhaps, for tights and stockings. 

In September 1979, a statement by Polly Peck said it was to acquire the fresh fruit business and a licence to use the brand. It did not include the canned fruit business, Nadir said at the time “The acquisition represents a remarkable opportunity for Polly Peck International to establish itself as one of the world’s largest suppliers of fresh fruit and vegetables.” It also had business interests in Turkey and Northern Cyprus and a sizeable packaging business. But there was no way that it had USD6,000 million dollars on tap. 

Looked at from today's perspective, it would be difficult to come to any conclusion other than that Asil Nadir's corporate structure was designed to defeat financial and tax investigations. You can see the structure, insofar as it was ever  unravelled, in the Court of Appeal's judgment in the Forsyth Case : https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/1997/751.html

Polly Peck International came under scrutiny for various reasons including allegations as to the source of at least some of the funds used to purchase Del Monte. Asil Nadir became something of a folk hero, portrayed (largely by himself) as having fled by private plan under the noses of the Serious Fraud Office. 

From its origins as a small textiles company, Polly Peck expanded into hotels, a giant electronics company and leisure complexes. But, inside that complex web of corporate vehicles one, South Audley Management, attracted the attention of The Serious Fraud Office. The company, by then relocated from South Audley Street to Mayfair, was raided and the very next day, shares in Polly Peck, by then a darling of the London Stock Exchange, fell dramatically. There were stories of people who had been early investors whose stock had risen 1,000 percent. Then they lost almost al of it. 

The original investigation related to suspicions of insider dealing in Polly Peck shares, an investigation that was not, ultimately, proceeded with. The Serious Fraud Office had found bigger fish to fry - it said that Nadir had simply siphoned off millions of pounds that should have been recorded as shareholders' funds.  It was alleged that a close-knit team around Nadir used a system of false accounting and other devices to explain more than 50 transfers that stole about GBP150 million.

I have often warned that companies with autocratic leaders and small powerful teams should be regarded as an increased risk of corruption, fraud and embezzlement and Nadir, despite his job titles being CEO and Chairman still held onto power to issue instructions to make payments on his signature alone.

There was a global money-go-round, of course, but also there was the small matter of Kibris - a small bank in Northern Cyprus that Nadir controlled.

Most of the money was traced and here the story becomes even more interesting. In my book Trade Based Financial Crime Vol 2, set out details of a company that used various devices to support its share price and yet failed in the most spectacular circumstances. That, ultimately, is where a lot of GBP150 extracted from PollyPeck went as it bought its own shares, through secretly owned companies,  in the open market. Not quite the money go round we are used to seeing. But the single biggest lump went to margin lenders who had funded the purchase of those shares in the expectation of growth.

IN 2010, Nadir returned to the UK, flying on a commercial airliner. He intended, he said, to clear his name and to finally prove that the Serious Fraud Office had been engaged in what he termed "prosecutorial misconduct of the gravest kind" and of engineering the collapse of his business enpire.

But in a trial that struggled to keep to the central narrative due to the web of companies and financial transactions, but it could be said that Nadir's failure ultimately came down to the implausibility of his defence and his lack of evidence to support it.

He was not entirely wrong: a lawyer at the serious fraud office released papers relating to the prosecution, failed to tell the Attorney General, to whom the Serious Fraud Office was responsible, and of being "untruthful" when asked about this at trial.  But, the Court said, this had not affected the fairness of the trial.

During Nadir's trial, he had claimed that every withdrawal from London had been matched by a deposit in Northern Cyprus and that large amounts of cash were held at his mother's home to ensure this happened. This - if one knows the entire story - has a ring of truth to it because buried in Polly Peck International was a trade finance business which was often described as a money changer for commercial enterprises. However, it seems to have been a massive hawalla enterprise and it actually made a significant contribution to Polly Peck's global turnover.

But it's there that we come back to Elizabeth Forsyth. At the time, there were stories that she was followe by officers,  was stopped at a service area on a motorway and a substantial quantity of cash found in her car. In a suitcase. But that's now what was alleged at trial where the Judgment sets out a convoluted series of movements around Europe in the chaotic times when trouble was brewing. She deposted more than GBP300,000 into her personal account from a company account in Switzerland and that was paid to a group company. She received no recompense. She also hand carried approx GBP88,000 from Geneva to London where it was paid into the account of a farm owned by the Group and later used to buy cattle. Again, she received no recompense beyond her salary. Her defence was that she was just doing as her boss told her to do and had  no reason to suspect there was anything untoward. It was on this point that the trial judge erred in his direction to the jury. 

The Serious Fraud Office said of Nadir's claims that cash was stored at his mother's home to cover withdrawals from the UK - in Turkish lire - would have required a stack 300 times taller than Nelson's Column. One shipment alone, if it had been real, would have weighed more than 135 tonnes. 

So, what happened to Del Monte? In July 1991, allegedly to avoid taxes, the administrators for Polly Peck sold that company's interests in Del Monte to Polly Peck International Enterprises Inc., a Delaware corporation for USD12.6 million - essentially what Polly Peck International PLC had paid for it. 

Over the years, there have been sales, mergers, disposals and, depending on who you believe, the brand, if not the company and all its operations are now owned by a company in The Philippines or one in Singapore. 

Meanwhile, as noted at the top of this article, Del Monte is again in trouble. In the USA, Del Monte Foods has entered administration, which Americans call "Chapter 11 Bankruptcy". 

The Company's website has a header saying "On July 1, 2025, Del Monte Foods announced it has voluntarily initiated Chapter 11 proceedings to pursue a value-maximizing sale process." That's PR speak for "we're trying to do a deal with our creditors. Please keep buying our stuff while we sort it out."

And then there is this: "The Del Monte Foods entities are the U.S. indirect subsidiaries of Del Monte Pacific Limited and are not affiliated with certain other Del Monte companies around the world,
including Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., Del Monte Canada, Del Monte Asia Pte. Ltd.,
Conagra/Productos Del Monte, or Del Monte Panamerican". Del Monte Pacific Limited lists operations in the USA, India, Asia and lots in the Philippines but it gives an address as care of 17 Bukit Pasoh Road in Singapore. But it's activity map shows the vast majority of it in the Americas including complete coverage of South America.  Del Monte Asia gives its address as 600 North Bridge Road, Singapore and is 100% owned by Kikkoman Corporation of Japan. 

Asil Nadir was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to ten years in jail but he was soon transferred to serve his sentence in Turkey. He died in Nicosia in early 2025 aged 83.

Further Reading: media report on the Group's auditors: https://aabaglobal.org.uk/pollypeck.htm

Del Monte Foods statement July 2024: https://www.delmontefoods.com/sites/default/files/2025-07/Del%20Monte%20Foods%20Press%20Release%20and%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf