David Cameron appointed Lex Greensill first as a senior adviser and then as a “crown representative” of the UK government in 2014. Greensill was, at the same time, an aggressive financial engineer, involved in the use of derivatives to lend to firms against their future income. He even persuaded the government to let his firm offer this service to Britain’s pharmacies.
Bill Crothers was a civil servant in charge of spending the government’s money. First, he helped bring Greensill into his role doling out major government contracts. Then in 2016, after leaving Whitehall less than a year earlier, Crothers joined Greensill’s company. In 2018 that company won a lucrative government contract, providing £1.2bn in loans to pharmacies, taking a fee for every loan.
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