Lex Greensill accepts nine-year UK director ban

Lex Greensill will be disqualified from acting as a company director in the UK for nine years, after agreeing to a disqualification undertaking that avoids a six-week trial over his conduct before the collapse of Greensill Group.

The Insolvency Service said the undertaking was accepted by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on 2 June and will take effect on 23 June, banning Greensill from acting as a director or being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without court permission until June 2035.

Greensill was a director of Greensill Capital (UK) Limited, Greensill Limited and Australian parent company Greensill Capital Pty Limited, all part of the supply chain finance group that collapsed in 2021. Greensill Capital (UK) entered administration in March 2021 with liabilities of more than £1.6 billion, while the Australian parent entered administration in the same month and later went into liquidation. Greensill Limited entered liquidation in July 2021.

The disqualification centres on transactions entered into in late 2020 involving US construction company Katerra and notes purchased by the Credit Suisse (Lux) Supply Chain Finance Fund. According to the Insolvency Service, the notes were backed by Katerra-related receivables and also benefited from trade credit insurance.

The agency said Greensill caused the three Greensill companies to enter into transactions that removed legal protections underpinning the Credit Suisse fund’s investment. The transactions meant the receivables no longer required payment, security held against those receivables was released, and the payment obligations supporting trade credit insurance were cancelled. The Insolvency Service said the transactions were entered into without required written consents.

The agency also said Greensill caused or allowed Greensill Capital (UK) to use $440 million received in November 2020 for purposes other than redeeming the notes owed to the Credit Suisse fund. The notes later defaulted when they fell due, resulting in a $440 million loss to the fund.

The Insolvency Service said Greensill’s conduct breached his Companies Act duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence as a director. The undertaking was given on the basis that Greensill did not dispute certain facts for the purposes of the disqualification proceedings only.

The development follows a series of litigation and enforcement steps arising from the group’s collapse. Insolvency Service investigations began in May 2022, and disqualification proceedings were commenced against Greensill in March 2024. Greensill unsuccessfully sought to pause part of the claim in May 2025, then unsuccessfully applied to strike out the entire claim in March 2026. The Court of Appeal later refused permission to appeal that strike-out decision.

The director ban also lands against the backdrop of continuing recoveries by the Greensill estates. We recently covered a £71 million settlement entered into by Chris Laverty, Will Stagg and Russell Simpson of Grant Thornton, the joint administrators of Greensill Capital Management, with former auditor Saffery, one of the more significant recoveries to date in the long-running insolvency. That settlement formed part of a broader litigation and asset realisation strategy, with unsecured claims against Greensill Capital (UK) still estimated at about $1.6 billion.