Assets frozen in £10m lawsuit

SIMON Eagle, the stockbroker at the centre of a watchdog's inquiry and a High Court legal case, has had his assets frozen in moves by a City firm to recover £10m.

Pershing Securities obtained a court order freezing Eagle's assets and those of his wife Lynn, including their £1m house in the Hertfordshire village of Much Hadham. But it emerged late on Friday that the freeze had been lifted on Mrs Eagle's accounts.

Pershing would not comment other than to confirm that it was taking legal action against Eagle and his wife and two unnamed British Virgin Islands companies in connection with events at broker SP Bell.

Eagle, 44, is already at the centre of an investigation by the Financial Services Authority into dealings by SP Bell in which the accounts of about 75 private clients were allegedly used to trade shares without their permission.

It is claimed that the accounts were used to buy and sell shares in Fundamental-e, a computer components company.

As well as being chief executive of SP Bell, Eagle was chairman of Fundamental-e.