BBC: Fraud investigation into MG Rover failure

LONDON - British authorities will launch a criminal investigation into the 2005 collapse of automaker MG Rover, which led to the loss of more than 6,000 jobs, the BBC and a newspaper reported Sunday

The broadcaster and the Sunday Times said Business Secretary Peter Mandelson would announce the Serious Fraud Office investigation in a written statement to Parliament on Monday.

In 2000, Britain's Phoenix consortium bought Rover from Germany's BMW for a token price of 10 pounds.

Rover — the last major British-owned carmaker — declared bankruptcy five years later with debts of more than 1 billion pounds. Its assets were sold in 2006 to China's Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corp., which revived the MG sports car brand.

The government held a four-year inquiry into what went wrong.

The British government's business department said Mandelson would make a statement on Monday updating lawmakers on the findings of the inquiry, but would not confirm the launch of a criminal investigation.

The Serious Fraud Office declined to comment.

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