Graeme Tough of accountants Martin Aitken, appointed liquidator at yesterday’s creditors’ meeting in Glasgow, revealed the figures but was unable to give any more details.
“The next stage of the process will be an examination of the company’s records, and an investigation of the directors’ activities,” he said.
Gordon, who was not at the meeting, was letting it be known through his advisers that he was one of the major creditors to the company.
Tough confirmed only that there was some “inter-company debt” involved, but did not confirm the suggestion that it formed a major part of the liabilities, nor did an estimated £130,000 debt to HM Revenue & Customs.
He said the debts had been “fairly well spread” among 100 or so creditors. Among these are former employees who say they went unpaid from January until the company’s wind-up was forced by HMRC on September 4.
Glasgow-born Gordon, 63, described on the now-vanished Windsave website as “a serial entrepreneur with an acute social conscience”, was bankrupted in the 1980s, but subsequently netted £12m from the sale of two businesses that developed equipment for public sector housing.
At its launch six years ago, Gordon promised Windsave’s turbine would “bring green energy to the masses”, and recruited former energy minister Brian Wilson as a customer and paid adviser.
The British Wind Energy Association said there are 17 other companies manufacturing turbines in the sector, and the industry created 500 new jobs last year.
Gordon has kept Windsave Holdings, the sole shareholder in Wind Save Ltd, in business and said the holding company funded the subsidiary’s trading, including payment of wages, during 2009.
But Windsave Holdings has filed no accounts at Companies House, preventing the liquidator from assessing the nature of any inter-company debt. It does, however have up to 40 shareholders including hedge fund RAB Capital, after a fundraising exercise on the back of promises that Wind Save was being groomed for a £10m flotation.
Windsave Holdings is said to have been run as a separate trading business for selling roof turbines, but that has been disputed by employees.
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