Emil Savundra

In a TV interview with David Frost, Savundra demonstrated contempt for his defrauded customers (some of whom were in the studio audience) and denied any moral responsibility.

Although he served a brief commission in the Ceylon Engineers, he was refused entry into the Royal Air Force during the Second World War despite holding a pilot's licence.

During this period, in the context of the Korean War, Savundra was used as a local intermediary in the economic sabotage of a shipload of oil which he appeared to be selling to China but which his American contacts had ensured did not exist.

[citation needed] Savundra, who had developed a career of sharp practice characteristic of a post-war black marketeer, perpetrated a coffee-bean fraud at the expense of the Costa Rican government in 1959.

In 1963 he formed the Fire, Auto and Marine Insurance Company (FAM), which took advantage of the thriving motor-insurance industry when car ownership in the UK was increasing and road networks were being developed.

Savundra had a lavish, high-profile lifestyle before FAM collapsed due to cash-flow problems and exposure by Sunday Times reporters of the company's lack of proper securities.

[citation needed] Because the scandal centred around the Minister of War, female escorts, the Russian defence attache, a well-known actress, a senior member of the House of Lords and many society figures, Savundra did not receive much attention.

[citation needed] David Frost, Savundra's eventual nemesis, posed for a photograph in the Christine Keeler shoot for the BBC's That Was The Week That Was by Lewis Morley.

[2][failed verification] Savundra was one of the first controversial businessmen to use UK libel law in an attempt to prevent publications such as Private Eye from publishing allegations about his life and business practices.

When it began to falter, FAM continued to issue coverage documents; only part of the premiums were submitted by the company's brokers (some of whom also engaged in fraud).

According to his defenders (who overlooked his track record in fraudulent trading), he insured high-risk clients and did not realise that he should allocate more resources to cover claims.

For his part, Savundra called Frost the "finest swordsman in England" and also referred to the audience (which included his clients, victims of the insurance-company failure) as "peasants" and claimed "no moral responsibility" for what had happened.