Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Businessman

Jason Niss
Sunday 09 March 2003 01:00 GMT
Comments

Adam Faith had a reputation as a cheeky chappie whose simple language and enthusiasm made investing in the stock market seem accessible to the layman. In truth he was a plausible populist who lost lots of people lots of money. And that included himself.

Faith wasn't a crook, but he wasn't careful about the company he kept or the advice he gave. It came back to haunt him last October when he was declared bankrupt.

Faith started making money outside show business in the 1960s, mostly in property. By the 1970s he was into higher finance and hung around with such business bigwigs as Lord Hanson. But then it all started to go wrong.

Faith met a charming, financial advisor called Roger Levitt, who thought that Faith's style and connections were ideal for selling investment plans. Celebrities, from Frederick Forsyth to Michael Winner, signed up. But Levitt was a crook and when his empire went down in the early 1990s so did the nest eggs of thousands. Faith lost £10m.

Channel 4 recruited Faith for its TV series Dosh! and this led to a venture, backed by stockbroker Paul Killik, to bring finance to digital TV on the Money Channel.

During the dotcom boom, the business was valued at £300m, but it turned out to be a turkey. The Money Channel collapsed last May. Faith, whose fortune went south with the venture, said: "We built the QE2 but it turned out to be the Titanic."

The truth is that Adam Faith was probably far better at singing and acting than he ever was as at finance.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in