Although only 35 years old,
the Duchess of Cambridge’s brother James Middleton has already blazed an
adventurous path through the business world, founding three companies.
But his parents’ Midas touch,
who made millions from Party Pieces, the business they famously started in
their kitchen, has stubbornly eluded him until now.
Unfortunately, that’s not all.
Because I can reveal that just six months after Boomf – the company James set
up in 2013 to exploit the novel marshmallow market – went bust with cumulative
trading losses of almost £2million, administrators have hired the law firm
Withers to recover them to assist in the investigation Payment to American
Express UK’ of almost £52,000.
The money was handed over on
Nov. 24 — just three weeks before Boomf went into administration.
“We are committed to reviewing
all information available to us and making an initial assessment of whether
there are any matters that could lead to recoveries in favor of creditors,” the
administrators note in their progress report released this week.
The Duchess of Cambridge’s
brother James Middleton has already made an adventurous journey through the
business world and founded three companies
The American Express payment,
they add, was made by Boomf’s chief financial officer, who explained that she
made the payment “solely to protect her personal creditworthiness, as stated on
the card.”
One of the admins, Peter Kubik
of UHY Hacker Young, tells me that “certain payments are allowed” even when a
company goes into administration, especially when they “preserve the value of
the company.”
But that was not the case in
this case, adds Kubik and explains: “You [the finance officer] shouldn’t have
done it. The creditor should not have received this money and we are reclaiming
it.’
Administrators managed to sell
Boomf for £300,000.
Middleton enjoyed Wimbledon
this week with his wife Alizee Thevenet. “It’s just a common part of the
administrative process of checking certain payments,” he tells me. “That’s one
of them.”
