E-Clear boss claims he is owed £25m by his own failed firm

THE tycoon behind failed payment processing giant E-Clear has claimed he is owed nearly £25 million by his own company.

Entrepreneur Elias Elia has officially listed himself as one of the biggest creditors of the business, which went into administration earlier this year after being widely blamed for the collapse of Scottish airline Flyglobespan.

Mr Elia has made a claim of 24,921,777 against E-Clear in a notice of statement of affairs lodged with Companies House this week. He did not list Flyglobespan as a creditor.

Last night the Greek Cypriot told The Scotsman that his personal losses from the E-Clear were "much bigger" than the 25m, but declined to elaborate.

E-Clear went into administration in January with debts of about 100m.

In his statement of affairs, Mr Elia said E-Clear had unsecured non-preferential claims of some 89.5m, including his own 25m and 2m to E-Clear's Cypriot parent company, which he is also believed to own.

The businessman, in a handwritten list of creditors, also included 49m owed to holiday company Sunwings, 34m to online payment firm Pago, part of Deutsche Bank, and 1m to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs.

He also listed a host of smaller claims by firms in England, Germany, Cyprus, Russia and the United States.

E-Clear specialised in providing online credit card payments for "distressed" airlines, including Flyglobespan, which was part of the Edinburgh-based Globespan group set up by Scottish travel entrepreneur Tom Dalrymple.

Several of the firms E-Clear dealt with, including Flyglobespan, Slovakian low-cost carrier SkyEurope and Scottish-owned Canadian airline Zoom, have collapsed.

The Serious Fraud Office has signalled that it has taken an interest in E-Clear's business, but has not initiated any formal investigation.