A controversial Edinburgh property tycoon dubbed ''Mr Moneybags'' has been banned from acting as a company director for seven years.
Michael Louis Karus, a trained lawyer, was hit with the sanction after one of his companies, Arrowbay Limited, collapsed with debts totalling more than (pounds) 274,000.
An investigation by the Insolvency Service found that Karus failed to co-operate with the company's liquidator and had not kept proper accounting records.
Karus, 43, acquired his nickname because he allegedly collects money from his many properties personally, stashing cheques in a satchel. Along with his wife and business partner Mary, he is understood to own or have owned flats in the upmarket Stockbridge and New Town areas, together with several businesses, including The Watershed bistro in St Stephen Street. He is also believed to have rented several premises to bookmakers Ladbrokes in Glasgow.
Karus owned two buildings in the capital which were leased out and used as ''sex for sale'' saunas. He has been reported as saying that he was unaware of what went on at one of the premises in Dundas Street.
The tycoon, who built up his property portfolio while practising as a solicitor in Gloucester Place, has also ran foul of the authorities in his legal dealings. He was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Law Society of Scotland and in 2001 had his practising certificate restricted for five years. In 2002 the society suspended him from practice altogether for breaches of its accounts rules. His firm, Karus & Co, is no longer trading.
The ban announced yesterday prohibits Karus from being a board director and of being concerned in, or taking part in, the promotion, formation or management of a company. Arrowbay was wound
up at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on October 11, 2002, at the instigation of Fife Council.
Matters of ''unfit conduct'' lodged before the court included Karus's failure to co-operate with the liquidator by failing
to disclose fully the assets and liabilities of the company,
and failure to lodge timely accounts with Companies House.
He is said to have owned more than 200 buildings and tenements across Scotland before one of his companies, Park Cross Properties, slumped into receivership in June.
A number of companies previously linked with him remain active, however, including Scotstone Limited and Cordelt Limited.
Karus could not be contacted for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article