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Chris Moore, former chairman of collapsed software company Torex Retail, charged with conspiracy to defraud and false accounting
The former executive chairman of Torex Retail, who built up the shop tills software business through a furious run of acquisitions before its collapse four years ago, has been charged with criminal offences by the Serious Fraud Office.
Chris Moore, a former chairman of Oldham Athletic football club, was a driving force behind the explosive growth of Torex Retail before a profits warning at the end of 2006 – eight days after the announcement of a series of contract wins – precipitated its downfall.
The investigation was sparked by Neil Mitchell, who was briefly appointed group chief executive before taking a dossier of information to the SFO in January 2007. The dossier brought a series of raids by the authority.
Torex Retail had been built through a string of 11 acquisitions, made in rapid succession after the company floated in March 2004. Shares more than doubled within 12 months of a listing on Aim, the junior London market, but slid back faster in 2006 as investors began to balk at the scale and speed of deals.
Moore had a long history with the business, which begun life as a division of Torex plc, the healthcare software group. Torex Retail was demerged after Torex plc's merger with iSoft, a rival hospital IT group, in 2003. For a short spell Moore, who had been chief executive of Torex plc, and his then finance director Mark Woodbridge, took similar roles at iSoft but were both pushed out within months after a boardroom row.
After leaving iSoft, Moore returned to Torex Retail as chief executive in early 2005. He was charged on Monday with counts of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting between May 2006 and January 2007.
The offences relate to the failure of Torex Retail, which went bust in June 2007, and are unconnected to the continuing business of Torex Retail Holdings and its subsidiaries.
In February 2007 the Guardian revealed that Moore, Woodbridge and Torex Retail's former executive chairman Rob Loosemore were among those targeted in the SFO's probe, though Woodbridge was not a director of the company. Last week the SFO charged Loosemore, Woodbridge and Torex Retail's former legal services director Nigel Horn with conspiracy to defraud.
By coincidence, iSoft co-founder Patrick Cryne, who succeeded Moore as executive chairman, is among four former executives facing a criminal trial this autumn after they were charged by the Financial Services Authority with offences of conspiracy to make misleading statements between 2003 and 2006. Cryne, a 50% shareholder in Barnsley football club, has denied wrongdoing.
The trial is unrelated to that of Moore and his former business associates at Torex Retail and is also unrelated to the continuing business called iSoft, which last month announced that it had accepted a takeover offer from the US IT contractor Computer Sciences Corporation.
