The former boss of a failed investment fund insists directors have nothing to hide.

Liquidators of New Earth Recycling and Renewables (Infrastructure) plc and its two feeder funds this month failed in their legal bid to question directors John Bourbon and Michael Richardson under oath.

The Manx taxpayer is currently funding the winding up of the group which went into liquidation in June 2016. It was once valued at $292m but there is now no likelihood of any return for the 3,249 investors.

Mr Bourbon said it was ’absolutely not the case at all’ that the directors are trying to hide something.

He said: ’We have always stressed that we would assist the joint liquidators with their inquiries, and we made all our electronic files available to them.

’Given the volume of documentation and the complexity of the matter the directors wished to provide responses to any questions in writing.

’We understand that there is in total nearly a quarter of a million documents now in the liquidator’s possession and that these can run in some cases to over 100 pages.’

Liquidators had wanted to summons Mr Bourbon and Mr Richardson to be examined under oath after they declined to be interviewed.

The high court heard they wanted to know the ’thought processes’ of the key individuals in relation to the companies’ promotions, affairs and dealings - and there was no other means of obtaining this information.

But Deemster Corlett rejected the application, concluding the order sought was ’carte blanche’ in nature and it should have detailed specific areas of proposed questioning.

Mr Bourbon said: ’It became clear during the proceedings that the liquidator had not read all these documents but had used some form of word search engine to process the information.’

New Earth involved many corporate entities and structures both in the Isle of Man and in the UK.

The principal waste recycling operations were based in the south and south west of England with the largest operations in Avonmouth where the main Energy from Waste plant was located.

These were, and remain, services provided to local authorities in the UK under long-term contracts for the processing of household and food waste, explained Mr Bourbon.

External financing was provided by a coalition of Nord LB and the Co-operative Bank but the former sold out its interest to the latter which subsequently called in its loan and arranged a pre-pack administration process with Duff and Phelps in the UK.

Mr Bourbon said: ’We understand that investor groups are of the opinion that the pre-pack may have breached the UK Insolvency Act but are unaware of any action which the joint liquidator may have taken to seek restitution for investors.

’At the point at which the pre-pack was arranged the directors were still in detailed negotiations with Global Gateways for the take-over of the complete business.’

He said this could have provided a recovery for investors, although they would have been the subject of a lock-in for up to 10 years.

’It is our understanding that Global Gateways were and remain interested in the acquisition of the former New Earth businesses,’ he added.