This is the moment the head of a collapsed island investment group was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.

Dr Alan Louis was arrested outside Douglas courthouse on Friday after disqualification proceedings against him and two former directors of Louis Group IoM were concluded.

A police spokesman said: ’A 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of money laundering.

’He has been bailed pending further inquiries.’

Louis Group IoM was launched in the island in 2002 but was ordered by the high court to be wound up in 2013.

There were some 120 separate Louis Group companies in the Isle of Man.

Total losses of investors’ money in island-based entities in the Louis Group have been estimated at £50m by the liquidators.

Around a quarter of the 700 investors were from the Isle of Man, the remainder being mainly from South Africa and the UK.

The largest investor put in around £5m but the vast majority invested much smaller sums of £10,000 to £30,000.

These were, the liquidators said, ’man in the street’ type people who were hit hard by the collapse, having invested a substantial portion of their life savings.

They had been attracted by the Louis Group’s self-projected religious values and claims that this was ’low’ risk property-backed investment.

They had taken comfort from the thought that the Louis family were co-investing with them. But in fact, liquidators don’t believe there was any Louis family money invested in any structure.

They found Louis Group had systematically mixed investor-sourced client money. This amounted to deposit taking activity despite none of the entities ever being licensed for that.

Liquidators also found a culture of absolute control, fear and intimidation, hidden fees and highly questionable retrospective or missing documentation.

As long as new money kept flowing in, Louis Group was able to continue with what the liquidators described as its ’highly improper’ activity.

But following the 2008 credit crunch, increasing numbers of investors started to demand repayment, finances became stretched and ultimately the group was brought down.

Dr Alan Louis, chief executive officer of Louis Group IoM, and two former directors, John McCauley and Lukas Nakos, have been facing disqualification in proceedings brought by the regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). At the start of a civil trial, the court heard that a fourth defendant, Dirk Frederik Mudge, had given a voluntary undertaking of disqualification to the FSA.

Three other former directors have previously given similar undertakings.

Deemster Rosen has reserved judgment in the disqualification proceedings.