Adrian Hyde

Adrian Hyde is a partner Begbies Traynor Group and a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner. He is head of the firm’s International practice.

In 2008, Adrian joined CVR (acquired by Begbies Traynor Group in 2021), a boutique insolvency and forensic accountancy firm, following 16 years as a solicitor in private practice. His legal career involved acting on contentious, and non-contentious, insolvency assignments, and proceeds of crime asset recovery cases.

Adrian's insolvency practice is predominantly focused on matters involving offshore and cross-border work including litigation, asset tracing, and regulatory driven appointments. His practice covers a wide range of matters varying in size and jurisdiction. He is regularly appointed Liquidator of companies where there are allegations of fraudulent trading, misfeasance, money laundering or tax evasion. In addition, Adrian has frequently acted as a receiver pursuant to the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Outside of formal insolvency appointments, Adrian has also been instructed by regulators in respect of various investigatory and review assignments by both the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) in the Isle of Man and by the Financial Services Commission (“FSC”) in Gibraltar.
 
Adrian was appointed as a joint Inspector, at the request of the FSA, to investigate certain matters relating to Montpelier (Trust & Corporate) Services Limited, pursuant to section 5 of the Isle of Man Companies Act 1974. This assignment required monthly reporting to court, detailing the investigations that had been undertaken and the conclusions reached. This matter remains ongoing and is still before the court in the Isle of Man.

Most recently, Adrian has been appointed Receiver in the Isle of Man over a company, and the private jet that it owns and operates, on the application of a bank based in the CIS region.

Other recent cases include Advalorem Value Asset Fund Limited (“Advalorem”), where Adrian was appointed Special Administrator over the fund at the request of the FSC in Gibraltar. Following extensive investigations, an application was made for a freezing order in the Gibraltar court. The application was over the worldwide assets of various individuals and companies which led to the recovery of substantial assets and the subsequent bankruptcy of Mr Gregory King (“Mr King”).

The proceedings brought by Advalorem ultimately resulted in judgement being obtained against Mr King for an amount in excess of £6m. This claim related to an investment fraud, and was in addition to an earlier fraud committed by Mr King in his running of Heather Capital Limited (now in Liquidation), an Isle of Man investment fund, which has claimed in the bankruptcy of Mr King for an amount in excess of £80m.

Other notable cases that Adrian has been appointed on include the Provisional Liquidation and subsequent Liquidation of a multinational law firm (a joint appointment with PwC in Gibraltar), the Management Receivership of a green energy investment company with pension investments in excess of £35m (a Serious Fraud Office appointment), and acting as Liquidator over a group of companies that traded to the detriment of HMRC for an amount in excess of £90m.