Financier Paul Taylor has been banned from working in financial services and fined £489,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority after forging documents to show a fake £170 million bond portfolio during negotiations to buy Reading Football Club and a small UK bank.
The City watchdog said Taylor, who was chief executive of investment firm Blue Horizon Asset Management at the time of the misconduct, lied repeatedly while attempting to get both transactions over the line between December 2023 and October 2024.
Esmeralda Toni, who served as managing director of Blue Horizon Asset Management during the same period, was also fined £121,200 and banned by the regulatory body for serious misconduct related to the attempted acquisitions.
According to the Financial Conduct Authority, Taylor acted dishonestly and with a lack of integrity when making false and misleading statements throughout both sets of negotiations.
Therese Chambers, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, condemned the actions of the two executives. She emphasised that public confidence in the United Kingdom financial sector relies on market participants maintaining basic standards of honesty.
Chambers said: "Trust in financial services relies on those working in it to be honest. Mr Taylor and Ms Toni fell woefully short of even this minimum expectation. They lied and lied again. They have no place in our industry."
Regulatory sanctions and document forgery
The regulator stated that Taylor, a former bricklayer who later became a corporate dealmaker, fabricated official documentation to demonstrate that he held a £170 million bond portfolio. The forged paperwork was presented during acquisition talks for Reading FC, an English professional football club based in Berkshire, as well as separate talks to purchase a small UK bank.
The FCA concluded that the false statements were deliberately made between December 2023 and October 2024 to push the transactions forward. Both Taylor and Toni have now been permanently barred from performing any regulated roles within the UK financial services industry.
Previous high profile takeover bids
Before his banned takeover attempts at Reading FC, Taylor had established a career involved in prominent corporate acquisition bids across British business and sports sectors. His early career included working for property tycoon brothers Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, who built major commercial real estate portfolios across London and the UK.
In 2002, Taylor led an attempted takeover of Chelsea Football Club, the West London football team. The bid took place shortly before the club was purchased in 2003 by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who subsequently transformed Chelsea into a major global football powerhouse.
Taylor was also involved in high-stakes retail acquisitions. In 2007, he led an unsuccessful £10.6 billion takeover bid on behalf of Qatari investors for Sainsbury's, one of the United Kingdom's largest supermarket chains.
