Shadow bank founder accused of stealing money to buy supercars
Shadow bank founder accused of stealing money to buy supercars
Tom SaundersMon, May 11, 2026 at 6:49 PM UTC
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Paresh Raja is accused of buying ‘a vast number of cars’, including Aston Martins, Mercedes, Ferraris and Rolls-Royces. He denies wrongdoing
An alleged fraudster has been accused of buying a fleet of supercars with money stolen from a British “shadow bank” he founded that collapsed.
Paresh Raja stands accused of buying “a vast number of cars”, including three Aston Martins, two Mercedes, six Ferraris and three Rolls-Royces, using funds taken from Market Financial Solutions (MFS) before it collapsed this year.
In a court claim filed by the administrators of MFS, Mr Raja has been accused of misappropriating at least £1.3bn to fund his “lavish lifestyle”.
MFS was a shadow bank, which meant it did not accept deposits and instead funded its loans by borrowing from banks and other lenders.
Administrators for the collapsed Mayfair-based shadow bank alleged that Mr Raja received hundreds of millions of pounds of MFS funds into personal bank accounts and allowed “false reports” to be sent to lenders.
MFS funds were also used to purchase UK residential properties with a value of more than £950m that were owned by nominees acting “on behalf” of Mr Raja, they claimed. Lawyers for Mr Raja have claimed that these companies were “part of a larger group that is beneficially held for MFS and its associated lenders”.
Mr Raja also allegedly instructed employees to destroy documents in the weeks leading up to its collapse, according to legal documents seen by the Financial Times.
Administrators claim there was a “systematic plundering of a multimillion-pound property finance business by the very man entrusted to lead it”.
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The lawsuit added that Mr Raja and his wife received more than £408m from “funds managed by MFS” to “personal bank accounts” in the UK, Monaco, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Based on an internal spreadsheet, administrators claimed that it had provided “an accurate record of actual lending”. At least £1.27bn of the roughly £2.6bn borrowed from MFS’s lenders was misappropriated.
A spokesman for Mr Raja said: “Mr Raja strongly denies the allegations. He has consistently maintained that there was no fraud or dishonesty.
“Assets which the administrators characterise as missing were held through nominee structures for the benefit of MFS and its creditors, a position set out in detail to the administrators in March 2026.
“Mr Raja’s ability to assist has been wholly frustrated by the administrators’ refusal to provide access to company and personal data, despite repeated requests. He will present his full account through the court process.”
A series of high-profile banks, including Santander, Wells Fargo, Jefferies and Barclays, have been affected by the collapse of MFS, after lending hundreds of millions of pounds to the private credit provider.
MFS described itself as a specialist provider of buy-to-let mortgage lending and bridging finance.
It was part of a fast-growing crop of so-called bridging lenders in the UK. These firms provide short-term, property-backed loans to borrowers who may not qualify for traditional bank financing and often charge higher interest rates.
Source: “AOL Money”
