Greensill Capital

On December 30, 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank would put $200 million more into Katerra, a construction startup, and that Greensill Capital had agreed to cancel about $435 million of Katerra's debt in exchange for a stake. A colleague emailed Lex Greensill about communications from the Journal. "No comment from us," he replied, adding: "we will receive 100 cents in the dollar from softbank on this - so no loss for us or our investors…".

The next day Greensill proposed wording for Credit Suisse, whose funds held the Katerra notes: "All securities under this programme will therefore pay out in full within the next 90 days. There will be no performance impact". Luc Mathys of Credit Suisse replied: "This will not work.....this looks like an non payment / default."

Greensill grew up on his parents' sugar cane and melon farm in Bundaberg, Queensland, where, as he tells it, the family often waited months to be paid for its produce, ABC's Four Corners reported. He moved to London in 2001 and founded Greensill Capital in 2011, packaging suppliers' invoices into notes that investors bought. Former Prime Minister David Cameron became an adviser in 2018. SoftBank's Vision Fund invested about $800 million in May 2019 and more that autumn. By February 26, 2021, Credit Suisse's four supply-chain finance funds had net assets of $10.02 billion.

On March 1, 2021, hours before its trade-credit insurance expired, Greensill Capital asked a Sydney judge for an injunction forcing the insurer to renew. He refused. Credit Suisse suspended the funds the same day. Germany's financial regulator imposed a moratorium on Greensill Bank on March 3, and Greensill Capital's UK arm entered administration on March 8 with liabilities of more than £1.6 billion.

"To all of those affected by this, I am truly sorry," Greensill told a parliamentary committee by video link on May 11, 2021. The same day the committee published the messages Cameron had sent ministers and officials on the firm's behalf, 68 by the Telegraph's count. "I am riding to the rescue with Supply Chain Finance with my friend Lex Greensill… See you with Rishi's for an elbow bump or foot tap. Love Dc." read one, to a Treasury official in March 2020.

By the end of November 2022 Credit Suisse had returned $6.78 billion of the $10.02 billion to the funds' investors. Its $440 million claim against SoftBank over Katerra failed in October 2025, but the judge found that some of the documents Greensill, a witness in the case, wrote at the time, "in particular" an exchange with a Credit Suisse executive, "contained untruthful statements."

In June 2026 Greensill signed an undertaking barring him from acting as a director of UK companies for nine years; the Insolvency Service said he had caused or allowed $440 million to be used for purposes other than redeeming the notes owed to a Credit Suisse fund. His spokesman said the disqualification matter had concluded "with no finding that Mr Greensill acted dishonestly or in bad faith."

Sources for this story