SCOTTISH Labour has called on the government to "urgently deliver a statement to the parliament" after the Serious Fraud Office visited the offices of Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel.
It comes almost a year after the launch of an investigation into suspected fraud and money laundering by parent firm GFG Alliance.
The SFO has confirmed that teams from the organisation visited company offices on Wednesday morning to request documents including company balance sheets, annual reports and correspondence related to the investigation.
It is understood a number of sites were visited across England, Scotland and Wales.
A spokeswoman for the SFO said: “Investigators spoke with executives at multiple addresses, who co-operated with the operation.
“As the investigation is ongoing, the SFO can provide no further comment.”
Mr Gupta carved out a name for himself in the 2010s when he saved several UK steel businesses from possible collapse - most famously in his Tata Steel deal in 2016.
His empire acquired the Dalzell and Clydebridge steel works in Lanarkshire, with the Scottish Government providing a £7 million loan to help restart the Dalzell site.
It also bought an aluminium smelter and hydro plant in Lochaber, with SNP ministers agreeing to underwrite the purchase for 25 years.
The guarantee's value has been estimated at more than £500 million.
Promises of 2,000 new jobs never materialised.
Labour finance spokesperson Daniel Johnson said: “ This is an incredibly serious development and Scottish ministers should be following this closely.
“We need ministers to urgently deliver a statement to the parliament to inform the chamber of any further financial damage that the government’s deal with Liberty Steel may cause to the public purse.
“The SNP’s dodgy deal with Liberty Steel has already exposed the public purse to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds.
“The time has come for the SNP government to come clean over their dealings and set out what ramifications this development may have for the people of Scotland.”
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