Dr Mohammed Abdel-Haq, the former chief of Rosette Merchant Bank, claims chairman Ali Zubaid's "vanity and importance" brought the bank to its knees.

Did the “vanity and self-importance” of chairman Ali Zubaid help bring Rosette Merchant Bank to its knees? Dr Mohammed Abdel-Haq, the former chief of the finance house, thinks so. According to court documents relating to an impending High Court showdown between Abdel-Haq and Rosette, he alleges that Zubaid’s “lavish and unwarranted spending” helped the bank’s losses spiral from around £132,000 in 2010 to £1.52m in 2012. Zubaid’s “personal indulgences” allegedly included paying £3.8m for a five-year lease for “opulent and unnecessarily large” offices in London’s Millbank. Zubaid, who controls 96pc of privately owned Rosette, also allegedly spent around £300,000 on redecorating those premises, and engaged the services of a chauffeur. Perhaps not in the best interests of those Rosette staff made redundant after cash reserves fell from £3.27m in March 2011 to £71,000 by the end of 2012......Read more here