[1][2][3] The report, which was only concerned with dealing with the directors and their actions while MG-Rover Group was still trading, revealed that the five executives involved took £42m in pay and pensions from the troubled firm before it collapsed.
The report also commented on the personal relationship between Nick Stephenson and Dr Qu Li, who was paid more than £1.6m in the 15-month period up to April 2005 for consultancy services.
Additionally, fellow Director Peter Beale was accused of installing a software application, Evidence Eliminator, which may have destroyed documentation relevant to the investigation.
In return the directors have accused the findings of being a whitewash and a witch-hunt, and it remains unknown the exact details of the actions of key government ministers at the time of the collapse.
Phoenix Venture's main trading businesses are/were: BMW had acquired the Rover Group in 1994, but by 1999 it had become a major financial liability due to disappointing sales of some of its model ranges.
[4] Since September 1999 the venture capital company Alchemy Partners, run by Jon Moulton and Eric Walters, had been in talks with BMW about acquiring Rover.
The consortium continued to enjoy strong UK press support for several years following the Phoenix coup, despite no all-new models being launched by the company.
[5] By the beginning of 2005, however, sales figures of MG Rover cars were declining sharply, not helped by the fact that most rival companies had launched all-new competitors in the previous five years.