Fernandes and Engavest in public spat over Caterham

TonyFernandes

The Formula One team has been plunged into crisis this week because of the row between Fernandes and Engavest, a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors who agreed a deal to purchase Caterham in July.

Holding company and supplier Caterham Sports Limited went into administration on Tuesday before Engavest released a statement on Wednesday alleging that the transfer of shares to the company had yet to be completed.

A further Engavest statement on Thursday affirmed that Fernandes is "fully responsible" for Caterham's activities due to his failure to release his shares.

Fernandes hit back by stating that Engavest failed to comply with a clause within the agreement to pay all of the team's creditors - which he stressed was the reason the shares had yet to be transferred.

However, Engavest have now rejected those claims.

"Engavest SA, strongly refutes the allegations of Tony Fernandes and Caterham Group CEO Graham Macdonald regarding its conduct while trying to purchase Caterham F1. Our statement of earlier today still stands," said Engavest.

"Every single condition precedent of the Sales and Purchase Agreement for which Engavest was responsible has been met.

"Only the seller, which includes Mr Fernandes, failed to meet his obligations.

"All salaries have been paid.

"Incidents such as a Caterham Group representative forcibly breaking into a filing cabinet containing our private and confidential documents and the continued refusal to deal with the outstanding loan of Exim Bank and complete the agreement has culminated in Engavest's total comtempt of Mr Fernandes and his Group executives with whom we entered a deal in good faith."

Meanwhile, administrators have placed the team's factory on lockdown, placing Caterham's participation in next week's United States Grand Prix and the rest of the 2014 campaign under threat. 

Caterham came into F1 in 2012 after Fernandes bought out Lotus' place in the grid - the current outfit named Lotus in F1 is an off-shoot of the former Renault team.

But the team have struggled at the back of the grid throughout their time in the sport and have yet to claim a single point in 55 races.

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