The owner of the buyer of Britishvolt has denied “any wrongdoing” after Australian federal police raided the company’s offices and seized computers as part of a tax fraud investigation.
The move is a setback to electric vehicle battery maker Britishvolt, which was acquired by Recharge Industries in January after it entered administration in January.
Recharge Industries’ parent company Scale Facilitation, whose offices were raided, told UKTN:
“We have and will continue to fully cooperate with authorities. We deny any wrongdoing and will continue working with our legal and other advisors to defend any matters arising from these discussions.”
Despite earlier reports, Recharge Industries has also not yet paid the unknown sum for the assets of the proposed Britishvolt gigafactory site, which had an original deadline of 31 March.
Scale Facilitation is a New York-based investor. Australian police also visited the office of SaniteX over the tax allegations. Both Scale Facilitation and SaniteX are owned by David Collard, a former partner at the accountancy firm PwC.
Britishvolt planned to build a £3.8bn gigafactory in Northumberland that would be capable of supplying the batteries for 300,000 electric vehicles annually.
However, administrators were brought in after the battery startup ran out of cash and made approximately 300 staff redundant
It came despite an investment from Glencore in November to stop its collapse, due to being denied an advancement of £30m in government funding.
The post Office of Britishvolt owner raided by Australian tax police appeared first on UKTN | UK Tech News.
