20:11 GMT, 2 June 2012 | UPDATED: 10:38 GMT, 3 June 2012
There could hardly be a greater clash of cultures. Straight-laced Malaysian executives from one of the country’s leading manufacturing conglomerates, and Dany Bahar, the millionaire boss of British sports and racing cars group Lotus – a man with film star looks and a lifestyle to match.
Malaysian group DRB-Hicom bought Lotus earlier this year but chief executive Bahar was suspended two weeks ago amid allegations of irregularities with his expenses and other misuses of company money.
Financial Mail has established that the accusations centre on hundreds of thousands of pounds spent refurbishing his rented home, and more than £1million on private aircraft, including jets and helicopters to fly Bahar to Formula 1 races and other events around the world.
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Bahar does not contest any of this, but according to friends he insists the spending was all part of his employment contract and entirely appropriate for the boss of a luxury car brand involved in Formula 1.
What appears to have infuriated DRB is that while Bahar enjoyed the lifestyle of successful luxury products company boss, Norfolk-based Lotus lost more than £1million in 2011 and has debts of £200million.
Bahar, 41, who was born in Turkey but is now a Swiss citizen, was paid £1.2million for his job and mixed with stars such as singer Alicia Keys and her husband, New York rapper Swizz Beatz.
Bahar appointed Beatz as Lotus’s vice-president of creative design and global marketing.
A month after the Malaysians bought Lotus, they began investigating the running of the company and how it was performing. It was this examination by accountancy giant Ernst & Young and a team from financial adviser Rothschild Group that resulted in Bahar’s suspension on May 25 while an investigation was launched into a complaint about his conduct.
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The company and Bahar have refused to comment on the affair, or even to go into the reasons for the suspension of Bahar, who was appointed to the role only in October 2009 having been recruited from Ferrari by previous owner Proton, another Malaysian company.
But Financial Mail understands that the accusations concern Bahar’s alleged extravagant use of company money and an interpretation of his contract, which was drawn up with Proton.
According to industry sources, the charges relate to the contract itself as well as expenditure on a rented home in Norfolk, company spending beyond agreed limits and using company money to travel excessively by helicopter and business jets, something said to have astonished the new owners.
But Bahar’s friends insist that all expenditure was specifically written into his contract. They also say he had permission to use helicopters and jets because this was the way that business was done in the supercharged world of Formula 1.
It was part of his job to represent Lotus all over the world where the cars were racing and where its engines were being used.
It is also claimed by his friends that Bahar had permission in his contract to approve expenditure up to £5million and to do up his rented house for about £35,000.
Bahar’s friends insist the issue of his home is typical of the way he is being smeared. ‘When he was headhunted by Lotus, they agreed to rent him a small house until he found a more suitable home,’ said one.
‘He did find a house and a deal was reached with the landlord that for no rent for a while the home would be refurbished. The bill for this work, which was around £35,0000, was paid for initially by Lotus, but the key thing is, he is paying the company back through his monthly pay packet on a regular basis.’
There should have been no surprise when he was appointed that he was a man who lived a glamorous lifestyle.
But his private life remains just that. Very private. He married Anne Johansson, daughter of a leading Swiss headhunter, and they have two children.
Bahar was born in Istanbul, where his mother was a cleaner and his father an electrician. When he was a child, the family moved to Switzerland. The beginnings of his career are shrouded in mystery but he became a senior executive at Red Bull, the Austrian drinks company with a racing team and large sporting interests.
From there it was off to Ferrari, where he was headhunted by Proton to rescue Lotus, where he set about taking on Porsche and Ferrari.
He was happy to tell newspapers about his style preferences. ‘I am a watch lover and I chose the ones that speak to me. This Rolex is the GMT-Master and I have had it for a year. I prefer the classic styles of timepiece for the office and sportier ones for going out.’
Bahar’s solution for Lotus was a £200million revamp to introduce four new models. According to some company sources, it is this project that is not going well – hence the challenge to Bahar’s spending by the owners.
But some in Bahar’s camp believe that the Malaysians want to sell Lotus to the Chinese, something strongly denied by DRB, which insists that it backs Lotus in Britain.
For the time being, Lotus, one of Britain’s most famous brands, is without a chief executive and the road ahead look far from smooth.
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